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A couple of years ago, pandemic flu was a hot topic. The media were agog; newspaper articles and TV news segments abounded. Although pandemic flu hasn’t been in the spotlight for a while, every so often, an article will surface that acts as an uncomfortable reminder that pandemic flu hasn’t gone away; it’s just formulating its next move, so to speak (or more properly its next mutation).

Last week, it was the dismaying news that 99 percent of the dominant strain of flu this season is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Although the mutation does not seem to have developed as a result of overuse of antivirals (in fact, the mutation seemed to appear first in Norway, where antivirals aren’t even prescribed),  the possibility of this resistance transferring to the H5N1 bird flu could be devastating if this strain does, as scientists have predicted, end up mutating and creating the next pandemic. It certainly might give pause to those organizations and universities who have spent money to stockpile Tamiflu as part of their pandemic plan.

Read more about creating a pandemic plan for your university on the Nuesoft Xpress Web site.

Integrated university health and counseling centers have several potential advantages over their separate counterparts. As well as facilitating a flow of information and enjoying possible economies of scale from sharing resources such as front desk staff or a practice management system, integrated health and counseling centers can also help more students gain access to mental health care through screenings administered in the health center as part of routine medical check-ups. This article, recently published in the summer edition of the Nuesoft Xpress e-Nues newsletter, examines in particular how student suicide rates can be positively impacted by an integrated approach to health services.

The results of analysis published yesterday show that those who use smoking cessation aids are up to 2.4 times more likely to successfully quit smoking than those that go “cold turkey” and rely on willpower alone to quit. Researchers also found that cessation aids were underused due to a lack of widespread access.

This information, which was compiled from a total of 69 different studies on smoking cessation, is particularly relevant to those colleges and universities trying to reduce cigarette smoking by students to below 10.5 percent, in line with the Healthy Campus 2010 goals. Health centers may choose to focus additional resources on promoting and making readily available such cessation aids as nicotine nasal sprays, nicotine patches and varenicline and bupropion tablets to maximize students’ chances of quitting. Additionally, many campuses are banning smoking on campus in an attempt to change students’ perceptions of how common smoking is amongst their peers, although to what extent this contributes to a lower smoking rate among students is a topic of some debate.

Health centers wishing to perform their own clinical studies on the effectiveness of smoking cessation aids for student smokers may find Nuesoft Xpress’ practice management system of use. The application includes a clinical studies tool that allows tracking, reports and analysis of participating students.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Methycillin Resistant Staph Aureus, or MRSA, was an infection found only in hospitals and nursing homes. These days, however, as every college health professional knows, it is a great deal more ubiquitous and it’s not just those with a weakened immune system at risk.

The biggest question is this: how do you stop an isolated infection from becoming a rapidly-spreading outbreak? The press would have us believe that cleaning every surface of gyms and locker rooms is what it takes to keep MRSA at bay, but in reality, although cleaning certain items (particularly gym equipment and mats) is helpful, educating those who have the infection and those who are at risk of getting it is far more effective. Attendees of Nuesoft Xpress’ online roundtable on MRSA on March 5 discussed how to achieve this, how to deal with the public relations side of an outbreak, and best practice when students present with skin lesions. If you missed it, you can find the notes and slides here. Nuesoft Xpress holds these roundtables monthly on a variety of topics relevant to college health; to keep an eye on what’s coming up, bookmark this page.