The school year isnâ??t even a week old but UW-Madison health officials already are seeing a good number of students coming down with the novel H1N1 virus — previously known as the “swine flu” — that made its way through Wisconsin and other parts of the United States and Mexico this spring.
“This is becoming a big deal,” said University Health Services epidemiologist Craig Roberts. “University Health Services is essentially swamped right now with calls and visits from ill students. Itâ??s a little hard to assess if some of this is due to increased awareness of the flu this year — but a lot of it is real illness. H1N1 is definitely here and weâ??re starting to see a lot of it on campus.”
Roberts said UHS saw nearly 200 students with flu-like symptoms from Aug. 31 through Sept. 5. Recently completed lab work indicates the vast majority of those students have the H1N1 virus.
Roberts said the distribution of the flu cases is “very widespread. There is no particular clustering or focus of the illness. Itâ??s really affecting all ages under 25.”