The porcine pathogen may have arrived in Morningside: in an email to all Teachers College students, TC President Susan Fuhrman wrote, “late yesterday afternoon we received a response from a TC student to our communitywide email on swine flu. The student was diagnosed this past Sunday with Type A Influenza, which has been linked to swine flu.  We have been and will continue to be in touch with the student.”

As for locations, “the student informed us that he was here on campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday and that he used computer labs on the third floor of Macy and on the second floor of Horace Mann. He also mentioned that he was in the first floor of the library as well as Zankel Hall.” TC administrators have decided that, because of the limited amount of time that the virus can live outside the body, sanitizing these areas “would have extremely low health utility and would be unnecessarily disruptive to our students during this busy time of the year.”

That doesn’t mean it’s the particular subtype of swine flu that’s causing everyone to freak out on Twitter. According to Wikipedia, “the new strain of influenza involved in the 2009 swine flu outbreak is a reassortment of several strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that are, separately, endemic in humans and in swine.”  Influenza A is the supertype of all the swine flu-like subtypes, as far as we can tell.

Commence mass hysteria, but only after reading why this whole epidemic may not actually be that serious. Full email after the jump.

UPDATE (5:29 p.m.): Great news! City Room reports that one of two possible new outbreaks of swine flu is at Ascension School, at 108th between Amsterdam and Broadway. City Room also ominously notes that city officials do not know how swine flu could have made it to the school.

– JCD & AB

Dear TC Students,

Late yesterday afternoon we received a response from a TC student to our communitywide email on swine flu. The student was diagnosed this past Sunday with Type A Influenza, which has been linked to swine flu. We have been and will continue to be in touch with the student. The student informed us that he was here on campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday and that he used computer labs on the third floor of Macy and on the second floor of Horace Mann. He also mentioned that he was in the first floor of the library as well as Zankel Hall. We promptly reported the incident to the Department of Health.

We have since checked with Columbia University medical personnel who have confirmed that the virus, in all likelihood, can only live outside the body, on surfaces such as tables and computer keyboards, for a matter of hours or, rarely, up to a couple of days. As we were notified 2 days after the student was on campus, sanitizing the facilities would have extremely low health utility and would be unnecessarily disruptive to our students during this busy time of the year.

We urge all members of the community to continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health and any of the other Web sites we noted in yesterday’s email. We urge the entire community to take appropriate hygiene measures, including frequent hand-washing and the use of hand sanitizer.