As Penn students head back to class and college students across the nation return to campus, additional information on the spread of H1N1 and further assessments of Penn's preparations have become available.
The American College Health Association released a report Tuesday that 4,045 new cases of swine flu were reported among college students at 149 of 204 participating schools around the country last week.
This report raises the total number of suspected cases at American universities to 6,043, with only seven hospitalizations and no deaths.
While some colleges, such as Emory University, have set up isolation housing for infected students, most are adopting plans similar to Penn's, treating infected students the same as they would for a normal seasonal flu.
Paul Walker, Emergency Services Manager for the University of California at Riverside, said UC Riverside is carrying out a similar plan to Penn's.
Students at UC Riverside are urged to practice good personal hygiene, call Student Health for advice rather than going to the clinic and recover at home in their dorms or with their families if they become ill.
Walker said UC Riverside has considered converting sections of dorms into isolation wards if enough students go home, but he did not think such a situation was likely to occur.
Washington State University, currently in the middle of one of the largest reported outbreaks nationwide - over 2,600 suspected cases out of a student body of about 18,000, according to The Seattle Times - is advising students to stay at home to recover.
Reports of swine flu are possibly inflated in some cases, as most university health centers are no longer bothering to test the type of flu-like illnesses of infected students. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on August 29 that 94.6 percent of all types of influenzas in the United States were H1N1.
The CDC also updated its recommendations for the use of anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu on Tuesday.
The CDC no longer recommends using Tamiflu on healthy people who were exposed to H1N1 in their community. Instead, it recommends reserving the antiviral to treat patients who are severely ill or at risk for complications.
This change does not affect Penn's policy, which has always been to reserve antiviral medications for severely ill patients.
Students with flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, are urged to remain at home and call the Student Health Service's helpline at 215-746-3535 for further information.
