With the end of flu season drawing nearer, some students might question whether they can postpone the stockpiling of cough drops and tissues until next season.
Though the flu season hasn’t officially ended yet, Tonya Burdette, director of Campus Care, said the health center has yet to see any flu tests come back positive.
Additionally, the center saw a small drop in the number of patient visits in January, Burdette said in an email. In January, 2,437 patients visited the center — a small drop from the 2,936 patients the center saw in January 2011.
And with the somewhat mild flu season thus far, Karen Robinson, nursing supervisor at Campus Care, said students are officially in the clear in April.
“(The number of flu cases) increased slightly in the United States in the week of Jan. 28 but still remains relatively low,” Robinson said, adding that no states have reported widespread flu activity this year.
However, even with the number of flu cases in the U.S. below the national baseline, Robinson said students are still arriving at the center exhibiting other ailments.
“We have seen a little bit of strep and a little bit of mono,” Robinson said, “but mostly the respiratory stuff.”
Patricia Parker, infection control coordinator at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, said the hospital has seen only a few positive flu tests this year, though they do not have the exact numbers documented.
“(We haven’t kept track) because there’s not a lot of (flu cases), so before, we were mandated to keep track of it,” Parker said. “This year, we have not been.”
A spike in the number of flu cases typically occurs after holiday vacations when people visit other parts of the country, Parker said. She said she does not predict another spike in the flu season this year.
“It usually decreases as you go along, and then in April, it stops,” Parker said.
Though Parker said she does not yet know whether this season is among the tamest flu seasons, she said the virus has not been an important issue this year.
“We probably won’t know until the season is over whether or not this is the lowest year in five or 10 years,” Parker said.
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