Student Health Services Center recognized for tracking influenza cases

Purdue University Calumet’s Student Health Services Center has been recognized by the Indiana State Health Department for its year-long reporting about influenza-like illnesses.

During the 2006-07 academic year, the Purdue Calumet Student Health Services Center agreed to participate in the Indiana Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance System, which serves to help protect the health of Indiana residents through early detection of disease outbreaks.

Sentinel Influenza-Like Illnesses (ILI) are defined as those in which patients experience fevers greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a cough and a sore throat in the absence of a known cause other than influenza.

Each provider participating in the surveillance system must report all patients who meet the influenza-like-illness definition, unless diagnostic tests confirm a cause other than influenza.

According to Sheri Walker, medical assistant at Purdue Calumet’s Student Health Services Center, “the information on Influenza-Like Illnesses activity provides an excellent picture of influenza activity in the United States when combined with information on circulating viruses.”

Each week, Purdue Calumet’s Student Health Services Center reports the total number of patients by age group who meet the case definition for Influenza-Like-Illnesses and the total number of weekly patients staff members see in the Student Health Services Center. The information is reported online in real time. Once the Center for Disease Control collects the data, information is sent to providers indicating which areas of the state are affected by the flu virus according to age group and what percentage of people have influenza.

News Release Date: December 12, 2007