Swine flu has struck Penn Staters again, as three more off-campus student cases were confirmed Thursday and three students who live on-campus are awaiting test results, said Penn State Spokesman Geoff Rushton.
One of the three students living in the residence halls said she tested positive for swine flu and began feeling symptoms last weekend.
The three off-campus students
are recovering, Rushton said.
Upon recommendation from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the on-campus students were removed from their residence halls and placed into single-occupancy rooms or sent home for seven days to recover, he said.
"They couldn't stay in the dorms, as was the situation," Rushton said, adding there wasn't any reason for panic.
Rushton said swine flu, also called the H1N1 virus, is easily spread.
"Anytime you have a large concentration of people, obviously the opportunity for things like infections to spread is greater," he said.
With organizers expecting about 125,000 attendees downtown at the Central Pennsylvania Arts Festival this weekend, Rushton advised to take health precautions to remain healthy.
Strategies include practicing good hygiene and not sharing cups or cigarettes.
"I would certainly encourage people not to share anything at this point," said Holli Senior, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "It can be something that simple of a transgression, and you can wind up sick."
Those between the ages of five and 20 are more at risk of contracting swine flu, Senior said.
"The biggest concern that people need to remember is that it still is new," Senior said.
"This strain is still new, and it's still being studied as we speak," she continued.
Senior said those with flu-like symp-
toms should distance themselves from others for one week or until the symptoms go away.
She said that with its large amount of students, Penn State and other large institutions are groups "monitored more closely" by authorities.
Last May, the university released a statement advising students to partake in "voluntary social distancing" and encouraged students not to share cups or play drinking games.
"They're still not sure how it's going to come back in the fall when seasonal flu is at its peak," she said.
The difference between seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus is that seasonal flu hits the elderly more frequently while swine flu infects younger people, Senior said.
Earlier this summer, the university announced that two students living off-campus were recovering from swine flu.
