Get ready, folks. It's time to gear up for what health officials warn will be a particularly harsh flu season ahead. In its latest proactive push to help us do just that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week provided online toolkits for schools, colleges and businesses to help them cope with large-scale flu outbreaks exacerbated by the H1N1 swine flu strain.

The toolkits — available at www.flu.gov — provide sensible and specific tips for each of these institutions to help curb the anticipated spike in flu cases.

In the case of colleges and universities, the timing is perfect. As waves of students make their way back to campuses across the nation, taking the right precautions is critical. College campuses — with students living in close quarters in dorms and many of them away from home — need to be ready to mitigate large outbreaks.

Health officials advise sick students to isolate themselves as much as possible, and not attend classes while they are ill. Colleges are also being urged to set up online options for students who may be forced to miss classes for any length of time.

More broadly, common-sense precautions across the board should prevail. Chief among them: Stay home if you're sick with flu symptoms. Parents should make arrangements now, should they have to keep their children home from school. Health officials recommend that you stay home and avoid contact with others until you have been fever-free for 24 hours. Flu symptoms include fever and any of the following: cough, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhea or chills.

Key recommendations remain: Wash your hands frequently and use alcohol-based hand sanitizers; and cover your sneeze or cough using tissues, throw out the tissue after use, then wash your hands.

There's good reason for diligence. Hawai'i continues to have a high number of flu cases — 1,400 for our small population of roughly 1.2 million — health officials said Friday. And that number represents just a fraction of actual cases.

"The more we can reduce flu in general the better off we'll be," said Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. "We strongly encourage everyone to get their annual flu shots."

That's advice worth taking. Shipments of regular flu vaccines recently arrived, and a higher number of residents appear to be making arrangements to get them. Vaccines for the H1N1 flu strain are in clinical trials and are expected to arrive in October or November, Okubo said. Federal health officials Friday reported no serious side effects in the first round of trials.

And there's more good news. CDC officials said Friday the H1N1 strain does not appear to be mutating into a more dangerous strain as it progresses through the southern hemisphere. That's viewed as a positive indicator of what the virus may hold here in the United States during the fall flu season.

Prevention is the best course. Take precautions, stay informed and do your part this flu season. That could make all the difference.