(U-WIRE) - As concern over swine flu expands at universities across the country, Washington University students can look to a new influenza tracking system provided by the American College Health Association.

The tracker, which uses reports issued voluntarily by officials from universities, relies on the contribution of more than 250 schools and is being used by public-health officials. The purpose of the tracker is to provide information to health authorities.

“ACHA is trying to determine the impact of ILI [influenza-like illness] on colleges,” said E. Victor Leino, research director of the American College Health Association (ACHA). “This information is also being shared with the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. If the incidence is high, this will impact CDC decisions regarding recommendations of who should get the vaccine and when.”

The system has a considerable amount of benefits, according to Leino.
“It is data that the CDC can use as well as providing state-by-state estimates so campuses can prepare,” he said.

In addition, local public health authorities can put the information to use.
“It [the tracking system] can be used with other case data from the CDC and local and regional public health departments to track the spread of pandemic H1N1,” said Alan Glass, director of Student Health Services (SHS) at Washington University and president-elect of the ACHA.

Information from the 165 universities has proven to be useful but is representative of only a small portion of the United States’ 15.9 million college students and 4,000 two-year and four-year institutions.

“Participation is voluntary, so there are potential sampling issues, and the data are self-reported, so there are potential issues with accuracy,” Glass said.

One study in August displayed 1,640 reported cases, which were reported by only 55 percent of the 165 schools that participated in the study.

Most cases at universities have been mild. But there have been rare instances in which students have had to be hospitalized. One student at Cornell University died after contracting the swine flu.

The highest rates of swine flu incidence have been in the Southeast and Northwest, particularly Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state.

Missouri has an average amount of H1N1 incidence, Glass said.
“The cumulative report data places Missouri about in the middle related to attack rates,” Glass said.

As of Sept. 11 and since the launch of the tracker, Region VII—which consists of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska—has had a total of 447 cases. In Missouri alone, there have been 405 reported cases and an incidence of approximately 44.6 people out of every 10,000.
Just in the week ending Sept. 11, there were 311 new cases of flu—293 of which were in Missouri. This represented a 214 percent increase in the incidence of flu in Missouri when compared to a week before.

Most schools, including the University, provide tracking information on a weekly basis.
“Over 80 percent of the 300-plus schools signed on are reporting weekly,” Leino said. “The CDC is watching as well. It seems to be well-received.”

In addition, the University’s Emerging Disease Task Force has been monitoring the Web site and is aware of the most recent data provided by the tracker.

As of Saturday, SHS had confirmed 11 cases of the swine flu on campus. All of them were mild cases.

The tracker serves a wide variety of people, according to Glass.
“The tracking system is supposed to serve anyone who is interested in the impact of novel H1N1 on institutes of higher education,” he said. “This would include students, administrators, public-health authorities, as well as others.”

Students reacted favorably to the creation of the ACHA’s influenza tracking system.
“The tracking system will be a good resource,” sophomore Sarah Michaels said. “It will be interesting to see how slowly or quickly the illness spreads.”

The tracking system serves as a reminder of the growing presence of swine flu on college campuses.

“It [the tracking system] will help you a little bit to know how cautious you will need to be,” Michaels said.

Anyone interested in reading the cumulative tracking data can access it at http://www.acha.org/ILI_Cumulative.cfm.