·         Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

·         Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.

·          Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.

·         Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

·         If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick.

·         While sick, limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

·         Visit the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) to find out what to do if you get sick with the flu and how to care for someone at home who is sick with the flu.

·         CDC recommends a yearly seasonal flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against seasonal influenza.

·         A new vaccine against novel H1N1 is being produced and will be available in the coming months as an option for prevention of novel H1N1 infection.

 

Generally the flu runs its course within three days. It is suggested you remain home and away from other people for at least twenty-four hours (24) AFTER your fever breaks. If you think you are ill, call your healthcare provider and follow their instructions.

 

AC continues to monitor the situation and routinely participates in conference calls with the CDC, Texas Department of Health Services, Amarillo-Potter-Randall County Public Health Department, and the other local jurisdictions in the Panhandle. There is no plan to close Amarillo College or any other school, college or university in Texas because of any type of Flu.

Understanding what allows flu strains to transfer (infect) from one person to another determines what steps should be taken to minimize your chance of getting any type of flu this year (or any other year). Flu (including this year’s seasonal and the Novel H1N1 Influenza) is passed by germs from person to person by coughing, sneezing, physical contact or other means of transferring germs.

Amarillo College is training the custodial staff on the use of stronger disinfectants for the common areas of the college. Our staff will increase the frequency of cleaning the bathrooms. Hand sanitizers will be placed in high traffic areas of the campus. We will keep you informed of what is happening and what additional steps AC is taking and recommending that you take.

 

When the Original Announcement was made by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), this new strain of Influenza was named H1N1 Influenza. Because it had DNA traces of Swine Influenza (though it cannot be passed from livestock to humans), the media dubbed it the “Swine Flu.” Now that it has mutated slightly, the CDC correctly calls it Novel H1N1 Influenza.

A vaccine for this new strain of Influenza is being tested and should be available during the next few months.

 
Question: Don’t we have flu every year?

Every year a seasonal Influenza or Strains of Influenza appear and infect hundreds of thousands of Americans. Scientists and health care professionals are typically able to determine what type of Influenza to prepare for, and vaccines are made readily available, as is the case this year. Vaccines are available for this year’s “normal” flu.

However, every now and then an Influenza Strain appears either too late to develop a vaccine ahead of time, or it is such an unusual strain that normal vaccines prove to be ineffective. The Novel H1N1 Influenza appeared late in 2009, and that is why research and testing remains incomplete on this particular vaccine.

 

·         CDC recommends a yearly seasonal flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against seasonal influenza.

·         While there are many different flu viruses, the seasonal flu vaccine protects against the three seasonal viruses that research suggests will be most common.

·         Vaccination is especially important for people at high risk of serious flu complications, including young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease and people 65 years and older.

·         Seasonal flu vaccine is also important for health care workers, and other people who live with or care for high risk people to prevent giving the flu to those at high risk

·         A seasonal vaccine will not protect you against novel H1N1.

·         A new vaccine against novel H1N1 is being produced and will be available in the coming months as an option for prevention of novel H1N1 infection.

·         People at greatest risk for novel H1N1 infection include children, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease.