Letter from Steven E. Hyman, M.D., Provost, and David S. Rosenthal, M.D., Director of University Health Services
Dear Colleagues:
We are writing today to bring you up to date on the guidance public health officials are offering this flu season, to tell you what Harvard has been doing to prepare for H1N1 flu, and to inform you about two new tools that Harvard has developed to help disseminate information about H1N1 activity across the University.
First, as you are no doubt aware, public health officials are closely monitoring the spread of H1N1, a novel strain of Influenza A, and urging everyone to take extra care this flu season. What does "extra care" mean? It means simply this: Influenza is spread mainly from person to person, so avoid close contact with sick people and pay extra attention to basic hygiene. Wash your hands often with soap and water, and cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
We have seen students and staff complaining of flu-like symptoms at University Health Services (UHS) since classes resumed, but the cases are not significantly high in number, and they have been relatively mild compared with seasonal flu. Symptoms of H1N1 are similar to those of the common flu and include body aches, fever, malaise, chills, and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea. Most people who have become ill with this new virus have recovered without requiring medical treatment.
Harvard Human Resources is preparing workplace guidelines for this flu season and will be distributing them shortly. In general, if you are well you should come to work, even if you have been exposed to someone who is ill. However, you should monitor your own health, and if you become ill, you should stay home from work. If you develop a flu-like illness, you should avoid work and anywhere else people congregate until at least 24 hours after you have been fever-free without the aid of medication. Typically, that will be at least three or four days after the onset of symptoms. If you are a healthcare worker (faculty member, staff member, or student whose activities require you to go to patient care areas) and develop a flu-like illness, you must exclude yourself from any activity with patients and must not enter a patient care area for seven days after the onset of illness or until symptoms have resolved, whichever is longer.
Public health officials say that an H1N1 vaccine will not be available before mid-October, and supplies will be limited. In the meantime, we urge you to get a seasonal flu vaccine, especially if you have a chronic medical condition that puts you at increased risk in the presence of flu. University Health Services has begun administering the seasonal flu vaccine free of charge to Harvard students, faculty, and staff with a Harvard ID. Information is available on the UHS Web site (http://huhs.harvard.edu/NewsAndEvents/Events/Event.aspx?id=200205).
University officials across all departments have been preparing for this flu season, identifying spaces where ailing students can recover without coming into contact with their fellow students, establishing new protocols for the teams who clean our facilities and serve food in our dining halls, and developing a plan to handle any significant increase in the number of people who are stricken with the flu this year.
As part of that effort, we have two new tools that we want you to know about.
The first is a new Web portal we have launched to serve as a central point for all H1N1 information at Harvard, http://www.harvard.edu/h1n1. There you will find links to public health agencies' Web sites and a UHS page with answers to frequently asked questions, and the latest University news and announcements related to the flu.
The second is Harvard Hotline, a new toll-free number to handle any influx of calls during a time of emergency. The hotline is being set up initially to manage calls related to H1N1, and callers who are unsure of where to get the information they need will be guided through a series of prompts that can steer them to the appropriate department at the University, where their calls will be answered by Harvard staff. The hotline will go live this week, and the number will be published on the new Harvard Gazette site (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/) in an item linked from the Harvard home page.
It is worth keeping in mind that most cases of H1N1 flu have been moderate or mild, and that to date the illness has not been as severe as health officials once thought that it might be. But it is nonetheless expected to spread widely, and it only makes sense to do what we can to limit its transmission.
We hope that this information will help keep you and your family safe and healthy through this flu season.
Steven E. Hyman, M.D.
Provost
David S. Rosenthal, M.D.
Director of University Health Services
