Answers to your questions
about influenza-like illnesses

This symptom comparison should help you:

If you have influenza-like symptoms, first pick up the phone and call your health care provider or UA Student Health Services (330-972-7808, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays) to report the illness. See the column to the right for more information about Student Health Services.

If you are sick with flu-like illness, the CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone, except to get medical care or other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Stay away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.

Ill students who live on campus are strongly encouraged to go home if possible, seek the help of their health care provider if needed, and return to classes when free of fever as indicated above. Notify your professors of your absence by phone or e-mail before you miss a class, and be prepared to make up any missed work. 

If you cannot go home, notify Student Health Services at 330-972-7808.

Take these everyday steps to protect your health:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

You can expect to feel awful when you have flu, however, influenza typically is a self-limiting illness. It usually lasts 5 to 7 days. Self-care includes rest, plenty of fluids, over-the-counter medication for fever and body aches and avoiding close proximity to other people to prevent virus spread.

In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Sudden dizziness
• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

In children, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish or gray skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Generally, Tamiflu is prescribed for individuals with flu who are either hospitalized, have a chronic medical condition, or have a suppressed immune system. Tamiflu for influenza is not a cure; it only reduces symptoms and decreases length of recovery time by about 24 hours.

Students with flu-like symptoms should not go to class. They should email their professors to inform them of their illness. To promote student success and to help prevent the spread of the virus, the University has asked that faculty announce their expectations for students who report off ill. Such expectations could require absent students to:

• follow the class attendance policy;
• make up any work missed;
• and inform professors of an absence before missing a class, assignment or test, and that this notification should come via e-mail, so that it can be documented.

The best defense against all flu viruses continues to be good hygiene practices including frequent hand washing, cleaning of hard surfaces more often than usual, sneezing into your arm, covering coughs and avoiding unnecessary close contact with individuals who are symptomatic.

Studies have shown that influenza virus can survive on environmental surfaces and can infect a person for 2-8 hours after being deposited on the surface.

Germs can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose or mouth. Droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air. Germs can be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets from another person on a surface like a desk, for example, and then touches their own eyes, mouth or nose before washing their hands. Contamination can be significantly reduced by regular handwashing and the use of alcohol-based cleansers for surface cleaning.

Several chemical germicides including chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, detergents (soap), idophors (iodine-based antiseptics) and alcohols are effective against human influenza viruses.