Hand-washing and coughing etiquette wasn’t enough for senior secondary education major Michael Brestel, who became the first University of Nebraska-Lincoln student to report testing positive for Influenza A.
Brestel went to the University Health Center last Wednesday after experiencing symptoms including body aches, chest congestion and an unproductive cough.
Brestel clarified that he has not yet been confirmed as an H1N1 influenza patient.
“Although, (UHC) talked to me as if I had swine flu and led me to believe that as far as they were concerned, I did,” Brestel wrote in an e-mail.
Brestel said a sample of his illness was sent to the Centers for Disease Control or an outside lab for confirmation and isn’t sure when the results will be back.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has reported 148 cases in the state thus far with 38 new cases last week.
Among last week’s confirmed cases includes a youth attending a conference on City Campus from out of town. The youth was diagnosed with Influenza A on June 24, and was confirmed as a “probable” H1N1 case by local health authorities.
According to emergency.unl.edu, others attending the conference who came in contact with the illness were treated. The health department reported that the infected individual has fully recovered after returning home.
Brestel said he was exposed to the students involved with this conference and may have picked up the virus then.
“The number (of H1N1 cases) is growing all over the country and we think that with the fall flu season we will see even more cases,” said Marla Augustine, the public information officer for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
According to Daily Nebraskan archives, in 1918 UNL battled the Spanish Influenza during the fall flu season. The breakout morphed into a full-blown epidemic causing hundreds of students to fall ill and forcing the university to close its doors for 20 days.
Kelly Bartling, UNL manager of news, said closing the university would be a difficult decision to make not just because of classes but also because of research and outside activities that take place on UNL’s campus.
“An easy answer would be once a pandemic health situation started to effect incredible numbers of people, then it would be in the university’s and everybody’s interest to shut down,” Bartling said.
“It might get to the point if there were a large scale pandemic that the government would dictate closing. If it gets to the point where people should not, perhaps, gather in groups then it might be better for everyone to stay physically sequestered from others so we aren’t spreading the disease.”
Brestel was treated with Tamiflu on Wednesday and has been cleared by UHC to return to classes today.
“The (nurse practitioner) who was assigned to me gave me a ‘Don’t worry, swine flu isn’t a death sentence or anything’ speech,” Brestel said. “Yes, she actually used the phrase ‘not a death sentence’ which actually made me more worried then I was before.”
The UHC and UNL were closed Thursday through the weekend for the Fourth of July.
Neither institution has confirmed Brestel’s diagnosis.
courtneypitts@dailynebraskan.com
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