The following message was sent to the Tufts Community Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009.
Dear Members of the Tufts Community:
In June, the World Health Organization declared an H1N1 ("swine flu") pandemic due to the global spread of this novel flu. Public health officials have advised that H1N1 flu could have a widespread impact in fall 2009. The university's primary responsibility and goal is to safeguard the health of Tufts' students, faculty, staff, and other members of our community. At the same time, we have sought to develop plans that would minimize disruption and support the continuity of our important missions of teaching, research, and service.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of preventive measures. H1N1 is primarily spread through droplets on surfaces. The advice recommended by experts includes: Wash your hands often, cough into your sleeve rather than your bare hand, and avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
An H1N1 vaccine is expected to be made available this fall or early winter by the federal government. The university will provide further information to the community as it becomes available. In the meantime, the H1N1 pandemic reminds us that any flu is to be taken seriously.
We encourage members of the Tufts community to be vaccinated for the seasonal flu. Seasonal flu immunization clinics will be offered for students on the Medford/Somerville campus, and for faculty and staff on all three campuses, in the fall. Details will be announced by email and will also be posted on the Health Service website when determined: http://ase.tufts.edu/healthservice. Graduate and professional students on the Boston and Grafton campuses will hear from their schools about the options for immunization available to them.
Tufts' University-wide Task Force on Pandemic Planning will continue to carefully monitor the H1N1 outbreak. To date, H1N1 symptoms in the U.S. have been similar to those of regular seasonal flu. As with other flu strains, treatment is focused on the use of medications to reduce fever and associated symptoms, fluids, and rest while people's own immune system fights off the illness. Public health authorities recommend treatment with anti-viral medication only for people with specific medical conditions or severe illness (see http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/recommendations.htm for more details). Most important, those ill with "influenza-like" symptoms should self-isolate until they have been free of fever for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication). Self-isolation essentially means going home and limiting contact with others. It will help individuals with the flu to recover and also prevent them from spreading the illness further.
Our plans to respond to the pandemic reflect the diversity of the academic enterprise across Tufts' three Massachusetts campuses. We can all support that academic mission by focusing on how we can prevent the further spread of the virus and how we can help those with the flu to recover. Accordingly, the single most important thing that members of the Tufts community can do is to stay home from work or school, if they have influenza-like symptoms. Since there is no widely available, accurate test for H1N1 flu, anyone with fever and either cough or sore throat is considered to have "influenza-like illness." Cold symptoms, sore throat or cough without fever are not considered to be flu.
We recognize that staying home from work or classes goes against the grain in an academic environment committed to excellence. But we are asking faculty across the university to work with students to offer academic accommodations to make up work that may be missed as a result of self-isolation. Staff who feel sick should notify their manager or supervisor and not come to work. Staff who are caring for ill members of their families may use the family illness days available to them. Individual schools and central administrative areas will be providing their communities with more detailed information as the pandemic evolves and specific response plans are put into effect.
For updates and related Tufts policies, please go to: http://emergency.tufts.edu/flu. We will provide updates to the Tufts community throughout the academic year. We thank the members of the University-wide Task Force on Pandemic Planning for their hard work over the last three years and appreciate your collaboration in our efforts to keep the Tufts community healthy.
Sincerely,
Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President, and
Patricia Campbell, Executive Vice President
