If it seems like more coughs and sneezes are being heard on campus, that’s probably because the flu officially has hit Truman.

Brenda Higgins, director of the Student Health Center, said the health center has seen several cases of influenza-like illness each day since mid-February.

There currently are 11  confirmed cases of the flu in Adair County, Lori Guffey, clinic supervisor of the Adair County Health Department said. these cases do not include ILIs.

Approximately two weeks ago, there were more cases of the flu on campus than in Adair County, Higgins said.

Higgins said students go home and bring back illness which lead to a high exposure of the flu on campus, and living in close quarters allows the illness to quickly spread.

The Center for Disease Control qualifications to diagnose someone with an ILI include a fever of 100 degrees or higher, cough, sore throat, abrupt onset and sometimes achiness, she said. these symptoms can last up to a week.

Influenza subtypes a and B are present on campus, after 10 laboratorial confirmations, Higgins said.

Higgins said students with an ILI should not go to class, especially when they have a fever, which is when the illness is most contagious. Students who show ILI symptoms should stay home to help prevent an outbreak on campus, which could reach faculty and staff, she said.

“If you’re coughing, you’re actually spreading those droplets through the air, and when students are in a confined space like a classroom, it’s a lot easier to spread those germs,” she said.

Methods for preventing the spread of germs include frequent hand washing, coughing into the upper sleeve of your arm, receiving adequate sleep, drinking plenty of fluids and healthy nutrition, Higgins said. Not sharing drinks and cigarettes, or anything with respiratory secretions also is important, she said.

Higgins said many of the ill students visiting the health center might have been able to prevent catching the flu or an ILI.

“What we’re finding with almost 100 percent of our students is that the people who are coming in with the flu are not people who have received the flu vaccine,” Higgins said.

Fewer students received the flu vaccine from the student health center this year, she said, possibly because there was such an increase of vaccinations last year due to the H1N1 scare.

“[H1N1] didn’t turn out to be the disaster that people had predicted, and so this year I think people are a little laissez-faire about the whole thing,” she said.

Higgins said professors should be lenient toward requiring a medical excuse from students missing class because the health center is so busy, they cannot see every student with flu-like symptoms.

“There are a number of times when you are perfectly able to take care of your own illness, she said. “Just by doing those self-care things: staying at home and taking appropriate over-the-counter medications, and not cost yourself time and money and exposing other people. when you don’t really need medical treatment, we would hope that professors take that into consideration.”

Higgins said she does not want to dictate professors’ class policies, but the health center sends out notices to assure everyone on campus is aware.

she said students might try to use these notices, like the most recent e-mail, to take advantage of their professors, but she thinks professors are able to tell which students are lying.

Chemistry professor Amber McWilliams said she has had several students miss class because of the flu, and one had it confirmed by the health center. she said she didn’t suspect any of her students were lying about being sick.

“I think Truman students are the kind of students that will show up to class sick anyway, so I think that is more frustrating to me than the missing class because of being sick,” she said.

McWilliams said she wants her students to stay home if they have an ILI or flu-like symptoms, so it doesn’t spread to other students in the class, or herself, because she has small children.

she said sick students who miss class have the opportunity to make up work or tests.

she said she does not have an attendance policy, but does take roll occasionally.

“I tell my students that I’m aware when they’re there or not, and at the end of the semester if anyone has a borderline grade, I’m going to back it whether they were skipping class a lot,” McWilliams said.

On Thursday morning, freshman Joey Martz rolled out of bed and went to take his biology exam with an unsettled stomach and feeling exhausted, he said.

Martz said he has not gone to a doctor or the health center. He is treating himself with Imodium, Red Bull and naps, he said.  He said he has been attending all his classes to prevent the hassle of making up work with his professors.

Martz said he has a stomach flu, which is different than the flu spreading around campus, so he doesn’t think he poses a threat to pass it on.

Martz said he would miss class if he were sick enough that he couldn’t concentrate.

“If it’s not going to do me any good to be in class, there’s no reason for me to go,” he said. “As long as I can go and still learn, it’s what I have to do.”

Martz said he thinks students lie to professors about being sick because, in some cases, they get away with it.

Flu vaccines are available through March at the health center for $15.