Swine 'flu and University

lushlifesaver

The only thing with swine flu is that you and the people you live with (e.g. those in very close quarters/the same house or flat) is that you are usually asked to quarentine ourselves for a week, after a week it's not considered contagious any more and the worst of the symptoms have usually gone and your fine again!
Like most others have said Freshers flu always goes round early in the term so try not to panic and enjoy yourself! =D

whitfreak

I dunno how many universities do this, but I was offered a flu jab as a fresher in halls (but not when I moved back in my fourth year...and I'm not in a high risk group) so if the swine flu vacine is sorted by then you might be offered that.

MrsManda

Like others have said, make sure if you do get ill (with anything) and feel yourself slipping behind do not be afraid to contact your tutor and ask for help. It's much better to keep your tutor informed than let things get on top of you and panic when you get to exams. If you are going to miss a deadline for any reason inform the lecturer who set the work as soon as possible to discuss rearranging the deadline. All the modules at my university have an online section where they put course materials, have discussion forums and in subjects where it is possible they also upload webcasts of lectures. Your classmates will also be happy to help you. I only have 16 people on my degree programme and last year 1 broke his jaw in half, 1 spent 3 weeks quanitined in centre for tropical infectious diseases, 2 got flu (not swine), 1 ended up in hospital with kidney failure due to an infection, 1 got severe concussion...All passed the year
So please try not to worry about it

melancholly

getting up to date with jabs is important - i know i was given a meningitis jab before i went to uni as that can be very serious and easily spread. just have an update meeting with a doctor and see what they say.

the other thing to do is lay off the alcohol, eat sensibly and get regular sleep and then you'll be less likely to be worn down and catching things easily (not sure how realistic that advice is!).

JoRowlingRocks

I go to Exeter uni, and if you Google it I'm sure you'll see that we had a huge outbreak of swine flu not long before the end of term! But don't worry All of the people I know that got it said it was no worse than a cold, and they were better after a few days- one of my friends recovered before his positive result! The student health centre got a large supply of Tamiflu and we had a 'swine flu committee' set up to help people (which everyone found hilarious). We got several all-student emails with advice; where to go & what to do if we thought we had it, how to stop the spread etc.

As others have said, you're veeery likely to catch Freshers' Flu anyway! Missing one or two lectures isn't the end of the world, especially in the first term of first year- often this is 'catch up' time to make sure everyone's at the same level (roughly, obviously) and most unis have plenty of facilities for you to be able to catch up easily if you do miss anything- you won't be so ill you won't be able to read lecture notes

To cut a long story short- fear not!