Tufts has seen an increasing number of students with influenza-like illness (ILI), particularly on the Medford/Somerville campus, over the last few weeks.
Health Service has seen a dramatic increase in cases of ILI, which progressed from 22 to 55 and 66 new cases each week in the first three weeks of October, according to Director of Health Service Margaret Higham.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said that it is unnecessary to test every patient with flu-like symptoms for H1N1 influenza, or swine flu. As a result, it remains unknown how many cases of ILI are actually the H1N1 virus.
But signs indicate that most of these cases are probably swine flu.
Health Service sends two samples a week for testing and, two weeks ago, both samples tested positive. Meanwhile, many rapid flu tests, used to confirm influenza with same-day results, have come up positive for type-A flu, a category into which the H1N1 virus falls, Higham said.
This volume of flu cases matches or surpasses that of the typical winter flu seasons, which generally start in January.
"This is a sign of a pandemic: a new strain of flu that hasn't been around for a long time and can start at any time of the year," Higham said. "Flu cases are now as high or higher than they've been at the peak of any winter season I've experienced in the last 10 years."
The rapid rise in cases has mainly occurred on Tufts' undergraduate campus, according to Kanchan Ganda, a member of the university-wide Task Force on Pandemic Planning.
"The undergrad campus has a larger student body and this is an infection that gets transmitted very easily," said Ganda, a professor at the School of Dental Medicine.
Preexisting sanitation protocol has helped contain the number of cases at the dental school, according to Ganda.
"We have a lot of infection control protocol for patient: care masks, goggles, gloves. Our numbers are less for that reason," Ganda said.
This increase mirrors trends across other college campuses and Massachusetts in general. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention upgraded the level of flu activity in Massachusetts to "widespread" from "regional" two weeks ago.
"There is a steady increase, which I think is being seen at other universities around the greater New England area for sure," Higham said.
This increase in patient volume has strained Health Service and diverted resources away from routine patient care. Higham said it is more difficult for students to book regular appointments.
"We've never had as many sick visits on a daily basis as we are now having … It has had an impact on us," Higham said. "We need all our staff to see sick students and don't have all our staff to do all our routine stuff that we spend most of our time doing."
Sophomore Jess Kulig, who is going on the Tufts-sponsored Ghana Gold trip, said the increase in H1N1 patients impacted her travel medication procedures.
"I think in past years [Health Service has] called each person individually to set up appointments to talk about the different vaccinations and medications to take while in Ghana," Kulig said. "This year since they've had so many people coming in with flu-like symptoms … they want us to go to doctors outside of Tufts."
Health care providers outside of Tufts have also been considerably taxed with the rise in flu cases. CNN reported that the Children's Hospital Boston had a 40 percent hike in emergency patients last week and set up a conference room as an H1N1 triage center.
David Rosenthal, director of Harvard University's Health Services, said that his staff has seen a hike in flu cases as well, though it has not affected the center's operations. "There are a significant number of undergraduates afflicted with ILI, but to date, so far so good — we haven't had to suspend day-to-day operations," he told the Daily.
Some have remained relatively unscathed. Hallmark Health Systems, which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford, remains unaffected, according to spokesperson Jesse Kawa.
"We have not seen a major increase in volume in our emergency departments as a result of the flu," Kawa told the Daily in an e-mail.
Despite the spike in cases, Director of Public Safety John King, who chairs the university-wide Task Force on Pandemic Planning, feels that the impact has been kept minimal at Tufts.
"I don't believe there's a disruptive effect [on] the university's operations," King said. "We have been planning for a pandemic for the last three years … there are lots of plans and efforts underway to help the university through."
Ganda agreed that the situation has mostly been kept under control. "I think we are keeping a check on things and not allowing it to become monstrous," she said.
Higham indicated that Tufts is waiting to receive supplies of the H1N1 vaccine from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which reported a delay in shipments and does not know when vaccines will be available to students.
"We have no idea," Higham said, in reference to the arrival of the vaccine. "Massachusetts is getting the vaccine slower than other states, none of it is coming to universities yet, [and] the public health department can't tell us when we can get it."
