The number of students sticking out their tongues and saying "ahh" to Health Services doctors increased slightly last week after a student was diagnosed with the bacteria that causes meningitis. But concern about the risk of meningitis on campus seems to have subsided and Health Services is reporting business as normal.
No students have been diagnosed with meningitis, and those identified as having been in close contact with the infected student are receiving preventive antibiotics. Health Services Director Michelle Bowdler said that the department received numerous phone calls and walk-in visits last week, but that this week has been much calmer.
"We were flooded with students Wednesday and Thursday. The e-mail went out around four on Wednesday, and by 4:30 on Wednesday the waiting room was packed and people started showing up who had been mentioned in the two sub groups," she said. "We were pretty nonstop until 8:30, and phone calls started coming in."
An estimated 175 students visited Health Services last Wednesday and Thursday, compared to the average 120 to 130 daily patients. Saturday was also busy, with 40 appointments compared to the usual 25.
"I think, by Monday, it felt like things were back to normal," Bowdler said.
After a 20/20 special last year raised fears about meningitis on college campuses, Health Services was overwhelmed with phone calls from worried parents. But this flood of calls was not repeated last week, and the number of parents who phoned Health Services was fairly small, according to Bowdler. Last year, parents received an e-mail informing them of Tufts response to national concern about meningitis. This year, the e-mail was only sent to students.
Since the student was diagnosed, Health Services has focused its efforts on preventing meningitis in those who were directly exposed to the disease. But once the department is confident that the risk of meningitis has passed, it may consider offering another vaccination clinic.
Bowdler attributes the calm response of the University community to the fact that many people have been vaccinated, that students were told that the infected girl had been diagnosed early enough to be treated, and that Health Services was able to react quickly.
"Everybody pitched in, and the whole campus was mobilized within two hours. People, if they were in a risk group, were informed within two hours," she said. "Information was readily available, services were readily available, and we were very, very pleased with the way this was handled."
In the midst of this heightened awareness of medical issues on campus, Bowdler is in the process of starting a Student Health Advisory Board to provide Health Services with the student perspective on the services it offers. She recently sent letters to various student organizations to advertise the new group and is waiting for responses.
It would be up to the students on the committee to decide what issues to tackle, but possible topics for discussion include Tufts' insurance plan, the way Health Services markets its offerings, and health education on campus.
"Students have a very different perspective than administrators and clinicians about what services they receive," Bowdler said. "For example, sometimes I think we're marketing something really effectively, and it takes hearing from students to learn that more marketing and advertising is needed on any particular issue."
Tufts used to have a Student Health Advisory Committee, but it was disbanded due to lack of interest. Currently, there are a number of students involved in Health Services' programming, and Bowdler said that student opinions contribute a great deal to the quality of the department's services.
"We have student representatives on our eating disorders task force, and we find that their input and perspective is absolutely invaluable to any decision we make about what to do on campus," she said. "We feel like we've had more successful programs with more student input because of that.
Pre-med Club President Brad Crotty agreed that a Student Health Advisory Board would be an effective way to create a link between Health Services and students interested in campus health issues. He suggested that such a group be a multidisciplinary committee with representatives from different student organizations such as the Tufts Community Union Senate, the Leonard Carmichael Society, and pre-professional groups.
"Health Services is an organization on campus that probably a lot of students will want to give some feedback to," Crotty said. "I think it would benefit Health Services greatly to have student feedback from all these different organizations."
