You have seen it on the news, heard about it on the radio and even might have seen it on May’s installment of Toilet Talk. “Swine Flu” is making its rounds. After an e-mail from President Switzer, it is common knowledge that as of now, Manchester College is still free from the epidemic.

“Swine Flu” recently underwent a name change to the more professional sounding “influenza A (H1N1)/North American/Human Flu.” The name has been changed partly due to swine not being affected in the United States.

The influenza has been getting geographically closer to the North Manchester area. Wabash high/middle school closed temporarily after a middle school student displayed some symptoms of the H1N1 flu. As of Tuesday, May 5, the result of the student’s symptoms had not been released.

Some Manchester College students have siblings who attend Wabash High School, and others travel to Wabash on a regular basis. The temporary closure of the school was not according to Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, but to keep the students as safe and as healthy as possible the decision was made.

The Indiana State Department of Health writes: “The virus causing the current influenza outbreak is not a swine flu virus, but a combination of human, swine and bird viruses.” Swine flu normally infects pigs, as bird flu normally infects birds. When the virus mutates, as viruses constantly do, the virus is no longer the same strand that was swine or bird flu.

Jane Skeans, the Wabash County Health Nurse, points out: “Every year a devastating number of 30,000 to 35,000 people die from influenza or influenza related complications in the United States.” As of Monday May 5, one person in the United States has died from H1N1.

A vaccination will soon be made for this strand of influenza. Until then, there are treatments even without a vaccination.

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