Numerous students have complained that due to the overwhelming amount of individuals becoming ill, the AC health center has been sending patients to the emergency room, or to other doctors, because there is “nothing else that they can do for them here.” This is an issue for many students who can not afford such services, especially students on the student insurance policy, which does not afford very good health coverage.
It is understandable that with so many students crowding the health center, staff is limited in their ability to care for every sick individual. However, we believe that there are small steps that can be taken which will vastly improve the on-campus health care.
For example, regulation influenza tests were not even administered to students who exhibited flu-like symptoms because health center staff felt that it was unnecessary to differentiate between H1N1 and the seasonal flu. No one was officially diagnosed with any type of influenza, unless they went to an outside source for further testing.
In order to ensure that the flu virus did not spread, health center personnel quarantined every individual who exhibited flu-like symptoms to his/her dorm room until the symptoms ceased. Special arrangements were made with campus food services to have meals prepared for those being quarantined so that friends and dorm mates could bring it to them. Also, professors were made to excuse any absent “quarantined” students, so that their grades did not suffer due to absence.
However, we do not think that this was a fair solution, as many of the students that were quarantined for flu-like symptoms may not have even had the flu. If a simple influenza test had been completed, it may have been found that they had a cold or other type of mild illness that was curable with an antibiotic or some other medication. That way, more students could have gone to class and fulfilled other obligations.
This is not to say that we believe that the quarantine idea was completely inappropriate. For students that actually did have any type of flu, it was probably a very smart idea for them not to be exposed to other people. However, we must also take into consideration that the time that an individual with the flu is most contagious is actually within the first twenty four hours of the illness; a period of time in which the symptoms haven’t even manifested themselves yet. Therefore, quarantining every student with flu-like symptoms is not completely sensible because but that time, they are experiencing the least contagious part of the illness.
In short, we believe that the on-campus health center is often a good resource for students. They provide for many students’ daily needs. Some examples of what they provide are discount condoms, free throat lozenges and feminine hygiene products. However, when it comes to actual illnesses, especially the recent outbreak of flu-like sicknesses, we believe that AC could step it up a little.