H1N1 University Awareness

Information for administrative staff

NLU administrative offices will remain open. Department managers are responsible for finding creative and appropriate ways to cover the workload of employees who become ill. The vice president in charge of a department whose manager becomes ill is responsible for assuring that the department’s workflow is uninterrupted.

According to the CDC Guidance, department managers and other senior administrators/deans are encouraged to “review and revise, as needed, policies, such as sick leave policies …that make it difficult for faculty and staff… to stay home when they are ill or to care for an ill family member.” Please contact your department manager or the Office of Human Resources if you have questions concerning sick leave.

Please contact your family physician or health care provider if you have medical questions about the flu, including H1N1, or go to www.cdc.gov.

All NLU students, faculty and administrative staff

Please note the following from the CDC Guidance for Responses to Influenza for Institutions of Higher Education during the 2009-2010 Academic Year. Although the CDC notes that this is “a menu of tools” and that how any university approaches an outbreak of H1N1 will depend on the specific conditions they face (location, size, community mobility), the following should be noted:

Based on the severity of 2009 H1N1 flu-related illness thus far, this guidance…recommends that students, faculty, and staff with flu-like illness remain home until 24 hours after resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.

People at high risk for flu complications who become ill with flu-like illness should speak with their health care provider as soon as possible. Early treatment with antiviral medications often can prevent hospitalizations and deaths. Groups that are at higher risk of complications from flu if they get sick include: children younger than age 5; people age 65 or older; children and adolescents (younger than age 18) who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy and who might be at risk for experiencing Reye’s syndrome after flu virus infection; pregnant women; adults and children who have asthma, other chronic pulmonary, cardiovascular, hepatic, hematological, neurologic, neuromuscular, or metabolic disorders such as diabetes; and adults and children with immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by HIV). People age 65 and older, however, appear to be at lower risk of 2009 H1N1 infection compared to younger people. But, if older adults do get sick from flu, they are at increased risk of having a severe illness.