Hanover -- About 175 Dartmouth College students have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, and random saliva samples indicate many of them may have the H1N1 virus, or swine flu.

“At least preliminarily, it's clear H1N1 is not a rarity at Dartmouth,” said Dr. Jack Turco, director of health services for the college.

“The bad news is, H1N1 is around,” Turco said. “The good news is, for the most part, it's a mild influenza-like illness and you get over it in a few days.”

Turco said that every college in the country is seeing a much earlier influenza season than in past years, when cases typically were not surfacing until late November or early December. And Dartmouth, he noted, is only two weeks into the school year. He said the 175 cases “is high for this time of year.”

Turco said that saliva swabs were done on a dozen of the students, and two-thirds of those tested positive for the swine flu virus. Turco said he is reluctant to conclude from such a small sampling that two-thirds of the 175 Dartmouth students have swine flu, but he added, “I would speculate that a majority of patients do have H1N1.”

No student has been hospitalized, Turco said.

And while he knows there are athletes on several teams who have flu-like symptoms, he added, “I can't tell you any particular team has been [hit] harder than any other, and I haven't heard any coaches blaming losses on it.”

“We are finding approximately two-thirds of the random tests are positive for N1H1,” wrote Turco in a statement released Tuesday, “which means that at Dartmouth, like at other campuses across the country, we are experiencing an outbreak of illness caused by the H1N1 virus.”

On its Web site, Dartmouth College Health Services says that testing for swine flu is not recommended for every patient experiencing symptoms, because the symptoms and treatment for season and swine flu are the same.

Vaccinations to help prevent seasonal are currently available, but shots to help ward off the H1N1 virus are not. Turco said he hopes to get an initial batch of vaccination directed at health care providers by week's end, but stressed it will be in the form of a “attenuated live” nasal spray vaccine. It's not recommended for use by anyone over 50 or anyone with an underlying medical condition, such as lung disease, asthma or pregnancy.

“You're actually getting a live virus that can produce a very mild infection, which is what produces the anti-body effect,” Turco said. “Live attenuated means it's a dumbed-down virus. It doesn't promote as much of an illness.”

Turco said he is hopeful that H1N1 vaccines with a killed virus component will be available within two weeks, with the first batches again being allocated to health care providers. Subsequent batches will be directed at the higher risk group for contracting swine flu, including those ages 6 months to 25 years old. This is another contrast between N1H1 and seasonal flu, which tends to afflict the older generation.

Other area schools are also on alert, monitoring cases and recommending frequent hand washings and “cough etiquette,” which entails coughing into a tissue or one's sleeve, rather than a bare hand that can then contaminate doorknobs, keyboards and other surfaces.

The number of students at Colby-Sawyer College in New London who sought treatment for flu-like symptoms peaked Sept. 21-22, with an average of 20 students coming in to Baird Health and Counseling Center on each of those days. That number has since decreased markedly.

“The number of students coming in with flu symptoms are down to two a day, which is average for this time of year.” said Kimberly Swick Slover, communications director for Colby-Sawyer. “We don't know exactly how many out there have the flu, but if that's an indication, we’re really leveling off in our numbers. Fortunately, we haven’t seen any real serious cases. Overall, they’ve been mild, with students feeling between within two to three days.”

Colby-Sawyer on its Internet home page has a link to a site titled, “What's New with the Flu?” It provides a chart tracking the number of reported cases at the college throughout September, and offers hygiene tips on how to reduce risks of infection. In an e-mail to the college community late last month, health center director Pam Spear noted that the spikes in cases were occurring on Mondays.

“It appears that many or even most exposures to infection among students occur during or just before the weekends, “ Spear wrote. “Please keep this in mind as you approach another weekend and take the necessary precautions to avoid infection and stay healthy.”

Vermont Technical College yesterday reported nothing unusual by way of a flu outbreak.

“We have no confirmed H1N1, just the normal amount of students who have shown signs of illness,” said Nancy Guild, administrative assistant to the dean. “Nothing major.” The college's nurse was out administering flu vaccines and was not available for comment, Guild said.

At Norwich University, media relations manger Daphne Larkin said yesterday there have been no confirmed cases of seasonal or H1N1 flu.

Dartmouth's Turco said he and other health directors at the “Ivy-plus group” schools -- the Ivy League plus MIT, Duke and the University of Chicago -- confer weekly. “One of those schools has over 800 cases, several have 300 to 400 cases” of flu, Turco said. “When this is over, everyone is going to report an extremely high rate of infection, but for the overwhelming majority, it's a mild illness. If we practice good hygiene and have people isolate themselves, we can minimize the problem.” He declined to identify which college had in excess of 800 cases.

Symptoms include a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more and a cough or sore throat, often accompanied by body aches, chills, fatigue, headache, fatigue and vomiting. Treatment includes bed rest, drinking clear, non-alcoholic fluids and taking pain relief medication.