H1N1: Local unis could do more

I heard from a friend who teaches at UPM just the other day that the campus had to be closed for a week last month due to a minor H1N1 outbreak. I was relieved at first to hear that the campus' powers-that-be took the disease seriously, but the relief turned to horror in about 5 seconds when my friend told me that students were sent home instead of being quarantined and that lecturers were not part of the quarantine. According to my friend, this has happened at a few other universities as well: lecturers were still made to work during a H1N1 outbreak, while students were sent home or quarantined on campus.

Changing sick leave policies and allowing staff to work from home should not be just limited to corporations in the private sector, local universities and colleges need to take the cue from afflicted schools who have in the past vacated their premises of both students and teachers for the well-being of both. In local unis for instance, with well over 5000 students and a limited number of academic staff, a sloppy attitude towards disease prevention and control could well disrupt students' classes if several lecturers were to get infected. Sure, time is money, but what is a one week campus closure compared to lecturers and/or students missing several weeks of class time? Which is more damaging to the college/unis reputation?

Having said that, unis and colleges can only do so much, students and academic staff should take precautions to ward off H1n1 and not depend on the powers-that-be. Malaysians are not alone in this respect, it seems. Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post blog The  Answer Sheet tells people to Stop Sending Sick Kids To School