The College Fix

One year ago at Tufts, single dormitory rooms were filled with quarantined students, bathroom walls were covered with posters warning against the ill effects of skipping a hand wash and a walk through campus wasn’t complete without at least one swine flu mask spotting. This year, the tumult over the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, seems to have died down considerably, if not completely.

Health professionals, however, warn that more relaxed attitudes toward the flu should not dissuade people from getting vaccinated. While the frenzy and paranoia surrounding swine flu have faded, the potential to get the flu – whether H1N1 or a different strand – has not.

“We do expect to see H1N1 flu this year,” Dr. Margaret Higham, medical director of Health Service, said. “It’s now going to be considered one of the seasonal flues.”

So if the threat of swine flu has not decreased, why has the anxiety surrounding the virus vanished?

According to Higham, it’s because people have already lived through the swine flu experience once before.

“The reason it has simmered out is that we have the experience of what it was like last year,” she said. “When a new strain develops, you don’t know what it’s going to be like. You don’t know how serious it’s going to be. You don’t know how many people it’s going to make ill.”

Read the full story at the Tufts Daily.

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