How much slack should Wake County high school seniors get for being absent from school so that they can keep their exam exemptions?

As noted in Sunday's article, Wake school administrators and high school principals are working on a waiver process that would allow seniors to cite "extenuating circumstances" so that certain absences wouldn't be counted against the limit used to determine exam exemptions.

It's being done at the urging of school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman, who argued that certain absences for medical reasons should not be counted against seniors.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the total investment that drug maker Novartis is making in its Holly Springs vaccine has not increased.

During an event this morning in Holly Springs, Jamie Iudica, senior director of technical operations for the Holly Springs plant, was introduced as an executive of a company that is investing $600 million in Holly Springs.

Iudica quickly clarified that the total investment in the plant is actually closer to one billion dollars.

Rob Ali, a Novartis spokesman who also attended this morning's event, said the figure is not new.

Ali said Novartis has publicized the size of its investment in the past.

Ali said Novartis still expects the vaccine plant to employ 350 people. It currently has 233 employees.

Novartis expects to begin commercial production of flu vaccines in Holly Springs by 2013, although the facility will be running before then to secure regulatory approval.
 

A UNC-Chapel Hill student has died from complications related to the H1N1 flu.

Lillian Chason, a freshman from Rhode Island, died Wednesday afternoon at UNC Hospitals, according to a post from her father, Eric, on Facebook.

"I'm sorry to have to tell everyone that Lillian died this afternoon at 5:20 PM," the post reads in part. "As you all know, she put up an incredible fight and if there was anyway she could have overcome this disease, she would have."

Chason's friends and family had set up the Facebook page as a way of giving regular updates. It chronicled the young woman's ups and downs after contracting the virus in November.

Laura Page, also a UNC-CH freshman, is left to remember the bubbly girl she met at fall convocation.

"She just came and plopped down beside me and we just clicked," said Page, a native of Gastonia. 

Chason planned to study dramatic art, friends said. Though a freshman, she had already scored the lead in a drama department play.

"She was so excited when she was cast," Page recalled.

Chason was also dedicated to exercise. She worked out each day, ate healthy and had considered joining the rowing team, an activity she did in high school, Page said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Lillian’s parents, the Chason family and their friends," UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. "We are so sorry for their loss. Lillian was a special person, and her Carolina family will miss her.”

Recently, after we published the article, "Pandemic flu kills NC child," we received a complaint from a reader. "Your use of the word 'pandemic'...was disingenuous and I think quite unfortunate," the reader wrote. "There is no H1N1 pandemic. It is certainly a severe disease especially for high-risk patients, but there is no pandemic and barely an epidemic as of now. For sure your headline and the article were attention getting, but the exaggerated and incorrect use of the adjective destroyed its credibility."

We were correct to use the term 'pandemic,' which refers to the widespread nature of an infection, not the severity. Based on infections rates worldwide, the World Health Organization declared H1N1 influenza a pandemic in June. Read that article here. For a good Q and A on the subject from N&O reporter Sarah Avery, click here.

--John Drescher 

Here are some tips from a random Google search on how to avoid getting sick:

1. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue, when having to cough or sneeze. Make sure the tissue is disposed when done. Don’t have a tissue? Sneeze or cough into your sleeve.

2. Using your backhand or forearm, when needing to rub your eyes or mouth, will help protect from germs.

3. After coughing or sneezing, make sure your hands are sanitized.

4. Do not share things like drinks, eating utensils, Chapstick or any other personal items.

5. Make sure to bring hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes.

6. Hand washing stations will be on site at the fair. Use them.

Practicing these tips will keep you and your family safe from H1N1.
Be sure to check out the H1N1 Twitter page at http://twitter.com/H1N1Info.

In the age of H1N1 flu concerns, should high schools suspend policies that allow seniors with good attendance to skip some exams?

As noted in today's article by Anne Blythe, high schools typically reward seniors who have good attendance by allowing them to skip some final exams. For instance in some courses, a student with an "A" average in a class and less than three absences can skip that particular final exam.

But the attendance incentive can conflict with messages telling students not to come to school if they're feeling sick. 

Coincidentally, Supt. Del Burns has stressed the importance of good attendance in this and this recent Superintendent's Journal entries.

In today's paper, the latest campus swine flu update.

The H1N1 virus hasn't yet become the danger public health officials have feared, but it is becoming increasingly common on college campuses.

The virus, similar to the common flu, hits young people hard. At UNC-CH, it has hit particularly hard, to the tune of about 700 cases so far this semester. But every campus around has had cases, from the big - N.C. State - to the small - Peace College.

There is no vaccine, yet, though drug makers are working on it and the first doses are expected to be available next month.

At NCSU, one professor has a thought as to why certain viruses spread so quickly on college campuses. Essentially, it is this: Students know how to practice good hygiene but don't do so.

Ben Chapman, an assistant professor of family and consumer services, recently published a study on a norovirus outbreak at the University of Guelph in Canada. He found that 83 percent of students who ate in a campus dining hall said they followed posted hygiene recommendations, but only 17 percent actually did so.

And part of the reason is the communication campaigns conducted by health agencies, which commonly use phrases like “self-isolate” and “gastrointestinal illness.”

If you're talking to a college student, Chapman argues, just tell them they'll puke if they don't wash their hands.

“A lot of the stuff that is out there is motherly and generic,” he said. “We have to target students differently than we need to target parents of little kids.”

You can read more about Chapman's study here.

At Duke University, researchers are looking for ways to detect the flu before symptoms arise.

A research team has a Department of Defense grant to investigate this using genetic markers, Sarah Avery reports today.

Researchers are enlisting the help of Duke students, 500 to 800 of them, to whom they are offering $25 gift cards to get involved.

Here's the story.

Duke University, in anticipation of a swine flu outbreak on campus, has tweaked a personnel policy and will offer three extra days off to workers who exhaust their own time bank.

Staff members with flu-like symptoms who have used up all their paid leave time will be granted up to three extra days of sick leave or paid time off.

The new policy will be in effect from Sept. 1 2009 to March 31, 2010 and will then be re-evaluated to see if an extension is needed.

In order to be eligible, a staff member must have flu-like symptoms including a fever of 100 degrees or higher; must receive Duke benefits; must have exhausted all vacation, sick and other time off, and cannot be on a full leave of absence.

Here's a Duke HR memo with more information.

Triangle college students are getting an unusual message as they return to college this month: Don't go to class.

At least, not if you're coughing. Or sneezing. Or have the chills. 

Are those symptoms vague and general enough for you? Yes, but this fall university medical staffs are bracing for a big swine flu - er, sorry, H1N1 - outbreak and in an attempt to mitigate it, are telling students to stay away if they have any of the symptoms.

Check it out.