A St. Thomas health official said the number of reported H1N1 cases at St. Thomas has reached 277. Although its arrival date is still not set, the vaccine may arrive on campus around Thanksgiving.

Madonna McDermott, director of St. Thomas Student Health Services, said students reported 74 new cases of H1N1 during the seventh week of the school year, which is up from 62 the week before and 49 the week before that.

“Numbers are increasing, though not astronomically,” McDermott said. “Generally following what most other regional colleges have seen, it is spreading just as epidemiologists predicted.”

A new vaccination has been introduced in limited numbers to the state of Minnesota, predominately for pregnant women, children under the age of 4, children with severe health conditions and health care providers.

Until the vaccine arrives, Student Health Services stresses minimal contact with the infected and appropriate recovery time.

McDermott said students generally recover from the virus in three to five days, but added she has seen follow-ups that have taken seven to 10 days to recover. This long recovery time makes it difficult for students to attend class while they take necessary precautions to recover.

“There is a high rate of student absenteeism impacting academics, sports, work and other aspects of student life,” McDermott said.

With lots of absent students, professors like Brian Shapiro struggle to get required information to their classes. Shapiro said his priority is his students’ health.

He simply requires an e-mail from the ill student and assures them he will work with them to catch up on the material they miss when suffering from the virus. Shapiro wants a sick student to miss as many classes as necessary to ensure no other students are at risk of catching the virus.

McDermott credited the student body for taking necessary precautions to minimize spreading the virus.

“Students seem to have a great awareness of and appreciation for communicable disease transmission and prevention,” she said.

The virus has put a strain on Student Health Services, requiring extra nurses to handle the extra student visits. Overall, McDermott believes St.Thomas is very capable of handling the epidemic.

“A lot of folks at UST have worked very hard to make sure this campus was prepared to handle the virus,” she said.

St. Thomas submits regular Bulletin Today updates to keep the community informed about the spread of the virus and emphasizes using the Pandemic Planning Web site. The Pandemic Web site is regularly updated with statistics, prevention plans, recovery methods and advice from professionals.

The staff at Student Health Services follows procedural instructions from the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to minimize the spread of the virus on campus and in the community.

Danny Grimmer can be reached at degrimmer@stthomas.edu