Flu Information

Breaking news

For information about flu clinics and other events, visit the Student Health Center's vaccine Web site at http://www.wwu.edu/chw/student_health/vaccine_clinic.shtml.

General information

The H1N1 flu outbreak is accounting for a growing number of cases in the United States and internationally. In the United States, probable cases have been reported throughout the country. The World Health Organization has raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to an international outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus. A Phase 6 alert signals that "a global pandemic is under way."

Western Washington University is working with federal, state and local agencies to stay abreast of the situation. Although the university community has experienced no recent cases of H1N1 influenza, the emergency management team has been working to ensure that a coordinated response is ready if necessary.

Continue to check this Web site for information on how the flu is affecting Western.

Updates

For regular updates, read the flu blog from WWU's Student Health Center.

Symptoms

The symptoms of H1N1 flu are similar to those of the regular human flu—fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm for more information.

Prevention

Everyday prevention techniques are critically important. They include covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze; throwing the tissue in the trash after you use it; washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze; avoiding close contact with sick people; not touching your eyes, nose or mouth so that you don’t spread germs; staying home from work or school except to seek medical care.  For more information, visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/habits/.

Work-related information

WWU faculty and staff members with questions about the swine flu as it relates to their jobs should consult the faculty and staff information page. To ready themselves for flu-related absences in the classroom, faculty members should visit Prepare for Flu-Related Absences.

More information

For answers to questions regarding the swine flu, visit the swine flu FAQ page from Emily Gibson, director of the WWU Student Health Center.

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News from the local area

• Whatcom Pandemic Joint Information Center

• WWU Student Health Center

• Whatcom County Health Department
  

• Whatcom County Department of Emergency Management

• Bellingham Public Schools

• City of Bellingham

• Washington State Department of Health

• British Columbia Ministry of Health Services

Info you can use

• Swine flu: What you need to know (Q&A from USA Today)

• Swine Flu and You (Q&A from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control)

• U.S. information (Up-to-date news from the CDC)

• Things you can do (Good habits to help stop the spread of germs)

• International information (Updates from the World Health Organization)

Government Web sites

• PandemicFlu.gov (Good source of information from the U.S. government)
  

• Health and Human Services (Regular updates, including Webcasts and news releases)
  

• Centers for Disease Control (Regularly updated investigation information from the CDC)

More information

Health and Human Services is sponsoring a video contest for public service announcements regarding the flu. For more information, visit the contest page here. A video from the contest is below.

For more information, contact the WWU Office of University Communications at (360) 650-3350 or news@wwu.edu. The WWU Emergency Communications Web site at http://emergency.wwu.edu/ will be updated regularly as news is released.