If You are Sick with the Flu
CDC recommends that individuals with influenza-like illness remain at home and away from other people until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8° C] or greater), or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications. Influenza-like illness is defined as a fever plus cough and/or sore throat. However, some people with influenza will not have fever. Therefore, absence of fever does not mean absence of infection. If possible, residential students, faculty, or staff members who live relatively close to the campus should return to their home to keep from making others sick. Those leaving campus to go to a private home to recuperate should be instructed to do so in a way that limits contact with others as much as possible. For example, travel by private car or taxi would be preferable over use of public transportation.
Students with single rooms and private bathrooms should stay in their rooms. Students living in suite-type living quarters should remain in their own rooms and receive care and meals from a single person, if possible. Students are asked to establish a “flu buddy scheme” in which students pair up as the identified caregiver if one or the other becomes ill. Ill students should limit their contact with others and, to the extent possible, maintain a distance of 6 feet from people with whom they share living space. If close contact cannot be avoided, the ill student should be asked to wear a surgical mask during the period of contact. Visit: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/masks.htm or www.flu.gov for more information on personal protective equipment.
Close contact, for the purposes of this document, is defined as having cared for or lived with a person with influenza-like illness or having been in a setting where there was a high likelihood of contact with respiratory droplets and/or body fluids of such a person. Examples of close contact include kissing, sharing eating or drinking utensils, or having any other contact between people likely to result in exposure to respiratory droplets. Close contact typically does not include activities such as walking by an infected person or sitting across from a symptomatic patient in a waiting room or office.