To the Dartmouth community –
There have not been any significant changes in the situation involving H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in New Hampshire over the last 24 hours. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has decided to keep in effect the same level of "passive surveillance" over the weekend as has been in effect over the last 10 days.
At Dartmouth we are waiting a final two culture reports for student specimens to come back from the state lab; we anticipate they will be negative for H1N1. So far all student results we have received have been negative for H1N1. Also, as expected, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed today that the Hanover Inn employee did have H1N1, but he is now fully recovered, is asymptomatic (shows no flu symptoms), and is no longer contagious.
The New Hampshire state public health department has reminded us that we may still see some more cases of H1N1 in the southern part of the state or throughout the state before this strain disappears for now.
The final advice is that we "slowly back off" the special precautions that we have instituted, but continue to be aware of and monitor the situation over the remainder of the spring and summer. Everyone is still anxious about which influenza subtype will reappear next fall and winter and, more importantly, whether it leads to a more significant illness than the H1N1 strain the caused the recent outbreak.
Over the past two weeks the willingness of the community to adopt good hygiene practices has been a major factor in our ability to contain the spread of H1N1. My hope is that we all will continue to maintain good hygiene into the future, since this is the best way to protect ourselves and our community from influenza outbreaks.
Over the coming weeks and months, you should feel free to send a BlitzMail to “health service” with any questions, comments, or suggestions about influenza or about best hygiene practices, which is our best bet for preventing a significant outbreak in the future.
This will be my last message to the community on this topic for the time being, unless developments call for further updates. Again, I want to thank you all for your patience and your cooperation as we have dealt with this flu outbreak.
