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The Prince George's Community College student body has been largely unaffected by the H1N1 virus, or swine flu — for now.

Since Sept. 1, five students and three staff members have visited the health center with swine flu symptoms — fever, coughing, a sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue — said Pamela Thomas, the Largo college's nurse and coordinator of the health education center. Five of the eight people have probable cases of swine flu, but no cases have been confirmed.

"We know it's coming; it's probably already here," Thomas said.

Ready to tackle the H1N1 virus, the college has a pandemic team in place composed of about nine people from different departments, said Angela Anderson, interim dean of the division of health services.

The team is developing guidelines to present to the college's administration for determining how many students and staff would need to be sick before closing the college, she said.

The college enrolls more than 40,000 students but has no dormitories, which eliminates close-quartered living that allows the flu to spread quickly.

At nearby University of Maryland, College Park, which has dorms and about 37,000 students, 250 students had reported having swine flu-like symptoms as of last week.

At Prince George's Community College, students and staff with fevers have been asked to stay off-campus for 24 hours after their fever breaks, and those on campus with flu symptoms have been encouraged to visit the health center and their primary care physician.

"We're telling students, faculty, staff that if they're experiencing flu-like symptoms not to come to campus," Anderson said.

Fliers are posted in classrooms and across campus with information about the differences between the seasonal flu and swine flu and how to identify the symptoms, Anderson said. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are being installed in highly populated areas of the campus, such as computer labs, and the facilities department wipes down doorknobs and handrails at least four times a day.

The school also is reinforcing the importance of hand washing, because the flu is spread through coughing or sneezing.

Faculty members are asked to note high levels of student absenteeism and forward those numbers to the dean of the division so the college can look for trends, Anderson said. Professors should have backup plans for classroom instruction in case they get sick.

Sandra Dunnington, the college's vice president for academic affairs and a member of the pandemic team, said that professors are being asked to select a buddy who knows their class material and could teach their class in their absence.

Dunnington said that in the event of an outbreak, the goal is for students' education to be as uninterrupted as possible.

The college is working with its information technology department to allow students to complete class work online, in the event that classes are canceled, Thomas said.

Karen Black, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said 99 percent of the circulating flu viruses in the state are the 2009 strain of the H1N1 virus.

On average, the department has seen the seasonal strains of the flu arrive in the state in late November or December over the past three years, Black said.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.