Thursday News Report of the Day

Audio/Story posted February 24, 2013 in CommRadio, News by Kelli Boyle

 

Recently, Penn State researchers have been able to develop a means of mapping out where the flu virus spreads and where it is most likely to spread whether it be in a closed group of people, or even populations at large. Penn State's Marcel Salathé, an assistant professor of biology, and Timo Smieszek, a post-doctoral researcher, developed the idea to use student classroom schedules to determine the timeframes and areas in which students experience the most interaction, and from this point they were able to determine which areas were most susceptible to spreading the flu virus.

When asked about this year’s flu season at Penn State, Jonathan Borowski at the University Health Services Pharmacy said, “This year it started off bad, however, it had tapered right off and now it’s not bad at all. Now we don’t fill that many prescriptions.” With this mapping method, Penn State will be able to target where students and staff are most likely to contract the flu virus.