‘Prevention’ is the key word related to the H1N1 Swine Flu at ETSU, now that laboratory testing for the virus is steeply priced at more than $400 per patient. The good news, for some, is that ETSU Student Health Services is waiting on a shipment of 2,700 doses of the vaccine, said Pamela Williams, Student Health/University Health Services site coordinator.

The vaccine will be distributed first to people who qualify as “highest risk,” she said. That includes pregnant women, and people with diabetes and heart disease.

Williams is unsure of when exactly the shipment will arrive, but she hopes it will come within the next week, she said. When it does, a mass e-mail will be sent to all students through Goldmail. The announcement will also be posted on the ETSU and health clinic Web sites.

Unfortunately though, the university’s involvement in helping diagnose and treat the H1N1 Flu virus is now limited, and will stop there.

The causes behind the pricey, $400 escalation are related to an increased number of patients, faulty testing kits and unreliable test results, Williams said.

Originally, the university’s health clinic ran a $35 inhouse exam, called ‘Influenza A or B Test,’ for patients with flu-like symptoms, she said. If the patients tested positive for Influenza A [H1N1], the clinic would send the exam to a state-run lab to confirm the results.

“First, it started out at state laboratories, and it was free because there were not very many cases of it,” Williams said. “Then they said we have to start charging, and no insurance companies would cover it.”

The greater number of diagnosed influenza cases today is not the only reason why the ETSU Student Health Clinic has stopped testing for the H1N1 flu, she said.

“They’ve [state laboratories] discovered that there’s a problem with that test, and we are getting false positives with it,” Williams said. “So CDCP started testing on lab kits, and they found they’re only 70 percent effective,” she said.

Two problems surfaced once the state lab compared its results to the university’s, she said. The health clinic’s results displayed positive when the state’s results came up negative, or the clinic’s test came up negative and the state’s proved positive.

ETSU’s health clinic was not the only one with faulty tests, Williams said. Tests done across the nation delivered unreliable results to state laboratories.

Now, testing is being done at the local level, which is why the exam is as expensive as it is, she said. Fortunately for patients with health insurance, a co-pay is all they need to pay to cover the cost of the test.

As for patients without insurance protection, their best bet is to pay $400 at a clinic, because the expenses will be far greater than that at a doctor’s office, Williams said.

Joseph Payne, a prospective ETSU transfer student, wasn’t phased by the three-digit medical price.

“Four hundred isn’t a lot,” he said. “That’s something you really don’t need to cut back on.”

Payne would be willing to pay the $400, he said. A person’s medical bills would cost more in the long-run if they avoided the tests and waited until they were deathly ill and forced to go to the emergency room.

Payne has a plan that he hopes will keep him out of the hospital and keep him from being $400 out-of-pocket.

“I try to limit my exposure,” he said. “I don’t go out in public like I used to. It makes me uneasy.”

A less-worried Megan Herring brushed off H1N1 as “just another strain of the flu.”

The first-year biology major got her flu vaccine one week ago at the pediatrician’s office where she works, she said. But her mom and brother weren’t as fortunate as she was.

“They went to the emergency room,” Herring said. “My brother had a 102.9-degree temperature.”

But they were treated with Tamiflu, the prescription doctors say works best for most patients, and after only a week, they’re over it, she said.

So what do people need to know in order to narrow their chances of contracting the swine flu?

Singing the “Happy Birthday” song twice while washing hands with soap and water is a proper cleaning, Williams said. Wash hands before and after eating, when using a keyboard and touching a doorknob. Don’t touch the face.

“If you’re out in public and you notice someone coughing a lot, the best thing is to stay away from them,” she said.

Keep somewhere between six- and 10-feet away from someone who is coughing to avoid breathing in germs which may spread out of their mouth, Williams said.

“Hold your breath. Cover your face. Move away,” she said.

Williams brought up another key point that affects people on a daily basis.

“H1N1 can live on a dollar bill for 10 days,” she said. “It’s because it’s cloth money; it won’t live on coins as long as a dollar bill.”

Carry hand-sanitizer at all times, Williams said. The likelihood of contracting the virus will decrease in probability.

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