The 2017-2018 flu season has been bad enough that UCM changed its attendance policy for the remainder of the 2017-2018 academic year.

According to a memo sent to UCM faculty members from the Office of the Provost, the amendment was made to allow students the ability to recover from illness without penalty and to reduce the risk of exposing others to infection.

The temporary policy changes allow students to make up missed assignments and exams due to illness. Documentation from a physician is not required, though an instructor may require a written statement from the student that an absence was due to illness.

Make-up work may be completed without penalty, but the student is obligated to contact the instructor on the first day back from an absence, and instructors can set reasonable deadlines for make-up assignments, according to the memo.

The policy modifications also allow instructors to ask a student to leave class if the instructor believes they are ill. The student would then be allowed to make-up assignments they missed.

If an instructor believes a student is abusing the modifications to the attendance policy, the student may be reported to the Office of Student Experience and Engagement to determine if disciplinary action is appropriate.

Confirmed cases of the flu in Missouri have almost quadrupled this season compared to one year ago, and we may not yet have experienced the worst of it.

“I don’t believe we’ve peaked,” said Ronda Davis, Johnson County Community Health Services public health nurse coordinator. “We’ll probably peak some time in February, but I don’t think we’ve peaked.”

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Missouri Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report for the 2017-2018 Influenza Season, through week 5 (Jan. 28-Feb. 3) there have been a total of 79,362 laboratory-positive influenza cases in Missouri, with a high so far of 12,708 cases reported in Week 2 (Jan. 7 – 13).

Last season through week 5  (Jan. 29, 2017 – Feb. 4, 2017) there were 20,400 such cases reported; the 2016-2017 flu season peaked in week 6 with 8,614 reported cases.

Davis said there have been 670 confirmed cases of influenza A and 255 confirmed cases of influenza B reported through Feb. 9 in Johnson County, almost doubling the combined cases of influenza A and B reported through Feb. 21 of the 2016-2017 flu season, when 325 confirmed cases of influenza A and 186 confirmed cases of influenza B were reported.

There were 7,435 confirmed cases of influenza last season through Week 5 in Missouri’s Northwest region, of which Johnson County is a part. There have been an almost tripling number with 20,231 confirmed influenza cases in Missouri’s Northwest region through Week 5 this season.

Both Western Missouri Medical Center and the University Health Center have reported an increase in cases of both influenza A and B.

Davis said Johnson County Community Health Services still has plenty of flu vaccinations left and encourages people who haven’t been vaccinated to do so.

“It’s not too late,” she said. “Even if we had peaked, people still have the risk of exposure. We still have vaccines, and we’d love people to come in.”

Davis said the best thing to do to prevent contracting the flu is to keep your hands washed and to keep yourself isolated if you are sick. A spokesperson for the University Health Center added that a healthy diet, proper sleep habits, and avoiding alcohol and tobacco will help.

Johnson County Community Health Services is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 723 PCA Rd. in Warrensburg and can be reached at 660-747-6121. The University Health Center is open from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.