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~ Vol 88 No. 144
|UNL to give out mass measles immunizations
8,arry Peirce
r Reporter
niversity, county and state
health officials are moving to
prevent a major outbreak of
)la measles after officials found
:ase of the disease last week at
iniversity of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
liversity Health Center officials
osed the victim, a male under
ate, with rubeola Thursday,
Dr. Gerald Fleischli, medical
;or of the health center.
Abel Hall, Fleischli said. According
to Christine Newlon, director of dis
ease control at the state health depart
ment, the victim was around other
individuals when he was infectious.
Fleischli said the student visited
Florida during spring break and may
have picked up the virus there. Other
people who were in contact with the
student or the virus in Florida would
now have the measles if they were
going to contract the disease, Flcis
chli said.
Grey Borden, state immunization
program coordinator for the Stale
I ‘This kind of thing is a medical director’s
nightmare.’
—Fleischli
Flcischli said one ease of measles
constitutes an epidemic, according to
the Centers for Disease Control in
Atlanta.
To prevent a large outbreak, as
many as 15,(XX) UNL students could
be lining up for measles immuniza
tion shots Wednesday and Thursday,
Flcischli said.
“This kind of thing is a medical
director’s nightmare,” he said.
The student diagnosed with
rubeola lives on the ninth floor of
Department of Health, said health
officials formed much of their “at
tack plan” Friday to prevent a larger
outbreak of measles.
The health center did a computer
search to find the names of students
“not known to be adequately immu
nized,” Flcisehli said. Barring com
puter problems, he said, lists of the
names will be posted today in the
Nebraska unions, Love Library, the
health center, the Reunion and in
residence hall cafeterias.
Students whose names are on the
list, but have been immunized, can
bring proof of their immunization to
the health center, he said.
Mass immunizations will be con
ducted Wednesday and Thursday
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Centen
nial Ballroom in the Nebraska Union
and Cook Pavilion.
To reduce the strain on people
helping with the immunization ses
sions, he said, students whose last
names begin with the letters A
through M arc asked to come
Wednesday, and those with names
starting with N through Z should
come on Thursday. UNL employees
who want to be immunized also can
come to the mass immunizations
anytime.
Health officials recommend that
students who have never been immu
nized do so this week. Also, those
who were immunized before they
were 15 months of age or before 1 969
should get re-immunized.
Officials say people born before
1957 probably have acquired natural
immunity because measles epidem
ics were common then.
Flcischli said health officials
don’t consider previous cases of
measles as proof of immunity. Bor
den said some people may think they
have had the measles but actually had
another rash that was misdiagnosed
Class schedule for the student who has
been diagnosed as having measles
English 150 Composition sec. 041
11:30-12:20 MWF AND 30
Math 208 Analytic Geometry sec. 001
8:30-9:20 MTWF M&N 206
Physics 212 General Physics sec. 250
11:00-12:15 TR BL211
Political Science 160 International Relations sec. 002
9:30-10:45 TR HAH 104
These classes will be contacted by LHC.
Source: University Health Center.
as measles.
Many seniors, transfer students
and graduate students will be on the
list because they weren’t required to
turn in immunization information
when they enrolled at UNL. Some
students in that group probably will
be immune and will need to come to
the health center to verify their im
munity, he said.
An information and immunization
request form will be inserted in the
Daily Nebraskan Tuesday and
Wednesday. Students who need shots
must complete the form and bring it
to the immunizations. By filling this
out beforehand, Flcischli said, stu
dents can shorten the time it takes to
be immunized.
Those who receive immunization
John Sruce/Daily Nebraskan
shots and those who can prove their
immunity to rubeola measles will be
given a stamped yellow card to prove
they arc not at risk.
The cards may be needed later if
UNL officials are forced to use more
drastic measures to stop the epidemic
by excluding non-immune students
from classes. If it comes to that, Flcis
chli said, professors will be given
lists of people who need to be immu
nized before they can come to class.
“That (exclusion from class) is a
possibility down the line, depending
on how well the students go along
with the immunization and how the
epidemic progresses,” Flcischli said.
UNL students who are under 19
See MEASLES on 3
Report of measles at UNL
brings warning from official
By Lisa Twiestmeyer
Staff Reporter
Measles is a highly contagious
disease, and anyone who be
gins lo feel sick during a
measles outbreak should “slay home
and give everyone else a break,” said
an official from the Centers for Dis
ease Control in Atlanta.
George Seastrom, of the center’s
immunization division, said there arc
two types of measles: rubeola, or red
measles, and rubella, or German
measles. The type diagnosed at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln is
rubeola, which Seastrom said is the
more serious form.
The disease is spread mainly
through droplets from the sneezing or
coughing of an infected person, Scas
trom said.
The disease is most easily con
tracted in physicians’ offices and
poorly ventilated areas like class
rooms and dormitories, he said. An
infected person could enter a doctor’s
office and cough, he said, and three
hours later others could still catch the
disease from droplets in the air.
The incubation period for measles
is 10 to 14 days, Seastrom said. Dur
ing the incubation period, there is no
sign of the disease.
A person who has contracted
measles first will experience a
“prodrome period,” Scastrom said,
when the person will feel generally
sick, and possibly start a temperature
or cough. The prodrome period lasts
one to three days.
After this, the person will contract
a rash and cough, he said, and one or
all three of the following: conjuncti
vitis, or watery eyes and sensitivity to
light, a runny nose and a temperature
of 101 F or higher. The rash com
monly lasts three to four days, he
said.
A person is infectious from two
days before the prodrome period
begins to three days after the onset of
the rash, Scastrom said.
Rubeola is more serious because
death can result from complications
caused by pneumonia and encephali
tis, an inflammation of the brain, he
said. Encephalitis occurs when the
measles virus itself attacks the brain
and causes it to swell.
Pneumonia is caused when the
measles virus weakens the lungs so
they arc more susceptible to other
germs. Some people with the disease
may need to be hospitalized to pre
vent severe pneumonia from setting
See SYMPTOMS on 5
Allen Schaben/Daily Nebraskan
Rosemary Thorpe, UNL Health Clinic supervisor, gives senior biology major Brian Furgason
an immunization shot for rubeola measles.
IOfficials defend university's decision on condom machines
(andon Loomis
Reporter
casual question and answer session
Sunday night quickly turned into a dis
cussion of how and where the Univer
f Nebraska Lincoln should distribute
ms and sex education literature.
Regent Don Blank of McCook and Vice
ellor for Student Affairs James Griescn
led the university’s position to refrain
putting condom machines in residence
- at least for now - against the questions
inimcnls of students living in the halls,
ur main point is that as a university, we
o be careful ...” Griescn said. “We
>e seen by the people at large as promot
ion campus.”
con students showed up in the lounge of
7. Hall for the discussion. Blank’s son
Sieve, a student assistant from Abel Hall, said
he coordinated the discussion to increase
communication between students, regents and
the administration.
Griesen said the university is looking at
ways to make it easier for students to buy
condoms, such as placing machines in the
health center so students won’t have to buy
them over the counter.
Availability of condoms on and around
campus is not a problem, however, Griesen
said.
He said places like Peru State College,
which has installed machines in recent years,
have availability problems because there are
few stores nearby.
“It’s not like we’re Peru College,’’ Griesen
said. “They’re so isolated there’s nowhere to
buy condoms. It’s not like we’re out in the
woods somewhere.”
Blank said that although the majority of
students voting in AS UN elections supported
the installation of condom machines, many
students are adamantly opposed.
Blank said those people are narrow-minded,
but they do exist.
‘ ‘For evei y two that want it, there’s one that
doesn’t,” he said.
Blank said economics also plays a factor in
the decision not to install machines in the halls.
He said some parents might not want to send
their children to UNL because the university
has made condoms so available.
People also might decide that they don’t
want to leave endowments to the university if
condoms are ‘‘blatantly available,” Blank
said.
Griesen did not rule out the possibility that
the university could make condoms mofe
available in the future. He said an option would
be giving them to health aides on each resi
dence hall floor, but said he is cautious about
acting without looking into it further.
“You have to remember that people like
Regent Blank and me grew up in an era where
condom machines were only found in the
scuzziest of gas station restrooms,” Gricscn
said.
Lloyd Guy, a sophomore journalism major,
asked if it would be possible for residence hall
governments to provide condoms to their resi
dents.
Gricscn said students can do whatever they
want.
“If you want to go down and buy Hershey
bars and sell them, that’s your business,” Gric
scn said. ‘ ‘And if you want to go down and buy
some condoms and sell them, that’s your busi
ness.”
Gricscn said he and the administration also
would not have opposed an effort by the Asso
ciation of Students of the University of Ne
braska to distribute condoms through its office.
But the bill that would have established that
system failed in the AS UN Senate.