A UW-Eau Claire exchange student has returned to Japan after his home university asked students abroad to return in an effort to contain H1N1 (swine) flu.

Freshman Hiroyuki Yoneda, an exchange student from Kumamoto Gakuen University in Japan, flew back to Japan Friday due to an order received from Tadashi Sakamoto, president of Kumamoto Gakuen, who asked all foreign exchange students in the United States to return home.

“My university said I must come back as soon as possible.” Yoneda said. “I wanted to take class to the end of the semester but I can’t.”

Because he will not be here during finals week, Yoneda had to take his ESL final exam last week instead. He said that his university is doing this in response to the World Health Organization raising the pandemic alert level for H1N1 from Phase 3 to Phase 4.

Phase 4 indicates the virus is able to sustain community-wide infection through human-to-human transmission, marking an increased risk for a pandemic.

Karl Markgraf, director of the Center for International Education, said that Kumamoto Gakuen is the only exchange partner of the university that has recalled any students.

“I wouldn’t say they are overreacting,” Markgraf said. “They just want to watch out for the student’s health.”

In addition, the university has cancelled this summer’s study abroad program to Mexico. Susan Lochner, a study abroad coordinator in the Center for International Education, said they cancelled the trip because the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel health warning to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.

“We are following the best advice of the CDC,” Lochner said. “We will never send students where there are travel warnings by the State department.”

The university has created a new summer program in San Isidro, Costa Rica, so that students who can no longer study in Mexico still have the option to study somewhere in Latin America.

Some students, on the other hand, don’t seem too concerned about H1N1 flu.

“I think it’s a big deal but I think we’re freaking out about it too much at this time,” junior Kate Willems said. “It’s something that we should be concerned about, but the media takes it too far.”

Freshman Kara Lundin said she doesn’t think about it because she doesn’t know anyone that has it.

“I’ve heard about (H1N1 flu) a couple of times but I don’t know much about it so it’s hard to have an opinion,” Lundin said.

Students looking for more information on H1N1 flu can get daily updates on the CDC’s Web site. In addition, students can look at