More than 15 Duke football players have been diagnosed with swine flu symptoms, and some of them have already returned to practice, ESPN.com learned Thursday.
The players have been staying at the Durham Hilton during summer camp, which has given the Duke medical staff an off-campus location to treat the illness. It appears to be working its way through the team just like any cold or flu, but the staff is trying to keep the players with symptoms isolated.
Duke sports information director Art Chase issued the following statement:
"Like many other schools and summer camps, Duke has had students diagnosed with influenza that is presumed to be H1N1. The cases involving our football program have been very mild, with illness typically lasting two or three days. We are following CDC guidelines to keep individuals out of general circulation for 24 hours after their fever subsides, so many of the individuals who were ill are already back at practice. The student-athletes received immediate treatment from our medical staff, and returned to practice only after being cleared by Duke physicians."
Duke resumes practice Friday morning at 8:30 ET. Names were unavailable because of health information privacy laws, Chase said.
Heather Dinich covers ACC football for ESPN.com.