After the deluge of attention on the H1N1 virus last year, this year's flu season has received scant notice from the University community.

Robert Ernst, medical director of University Health Service, said low demand for the flu vaccine this year was troubling since the vaccines available in Ann Arbor could have protected the students, staff and faculty who have come into UHS with the flu.

According to Ernst, the lack of media attention on this year’s flu season compared to last year has contributed to a decrease in demand for the vaccine.

“There is a lot more vaccine available this year than there was last year ...” Ernst said. “This year, there’s been less demand but widely available vaccines, so there are people sitting on surpluses of vaccines.”

The emergence of the H1N1 virus last year resulted in the flu season beginning in September and peaking in November, Ernst said. This meant that UHS had to adapt its procedure to cope with the increase in students visiting the clinic. This flu season, however, is more similar to previous years, he said.

“Normally, we expect to see an increase in activity between November through March … If you look at what’s happening over the last few weeks, we’ve been seeing a steady increase in cases of both confirmed and suspicious activity attributable to influenza,” Ernst said.

Carol Chenoweth, clinical professor of epidemiology and a University Hospital epidemiologist, said the number of influenza cases at the hospital has been increasing since January and that there have been 37 confirmed cases at the hospital in the past week.

UHS has continued to adopt some of the strategies for handling flu vaccines this year as it did when dealing with the H1N1 virus like encouraging people to wash their hands and insisting that infected students remain isolated.

When individuals are experiencing symptoms like fever, aches and coughing, they shouldn’t be in public places, Ernst said.

“If people are sick with the flu, they should not be in their classroom until their fever breaks,” Ernst said. “We do not want sick kids in the classroom … That’s what’s going to cause the spread of the virus.”

Ernst also said requiring students to get a doctor’s note from UHS to miss class without penalty is problematic, as it could increase the risk of the virus spreading.

“If it’s required for a student to have a note, then that creates a bit of a problem in that the students are coming here just for getting a note,” Ernst said. “Students should not be out and about if they are sick. They should not be convalescing in public.”

Brian Porter-Szucs, an associate professor of history at the University, said he has a strict attendance policy for his classes and doesn’t accept notes from UHS. However, he does allow students one absence.

“One thing you learn very quickly in this job — that when finals come around, a lot of people get sick,” Porter-Szucs said. “So I don’t know whether it’s legit or not, and I don’t want to be in the position of being the jerk who says to somebody who was really sick, ‘I don’t believe you’ or be the sucker who says to somebody who really wasn’t sick that they could get free credit.”

However, other instructors like Rostom Mesli, a graduate student instructor in the Department of Comparative Literature, have a different approach as Mesli said he accepts doctors’ notes from students who were sick.

Chenoweth said though students aren’t as likely to contract the flu as the elderly, they are more at risk than the of contracting the H1N1 virus.

"Older people seem to have immunity to the H1N1 virus...” Chenoweth said. “That is the primary virus that is circulating this year.