Sick students struggle to balance class work, rest

By Lauren Bellamy

With the University of Georgia’s estimated swine flu toll nearing 300, students all over campus are feeling the effects of the virus.

Some students who have already contracted swine flu this semester are glad they caught it early. Anna Carvalho, a sophomore from Tallahassee, Fla., is one such student. “Now is a better time to get it, because it’s still the beginning of school and you won’t miss as much,” she said.

Even though it is the beginning of the semester, Carvalho still struggled with professors and missing class. “I E-mailed my Spanish teacher telling her I had swine flu, but she just responded that it wasn’t a good time to miss class and that I should be looking at the syllabus,” she said.

Carvalho had to rework her schedule to complete makeup work for class. “I had plans to go [to Tallahassee] for Labor Day, but I had to stay in Athens and catch up on schoolwork,” she said.

While she had swine flu, Carvalho had to check into a room at the Holiday Inn Express to avoid spreading the virus. “The health center told me that I should go home, but I couldn’t drive five hours to get there,” she said. “My roommates were wary of me staying, so I figured the best option would be a hotel.”

Doctors at the health center have been urging students like Carvalho to find an off-campus place to stay while getting over swine flu if at all possible. While some are choosing to isolate themselves in their rooms, many sick students who don’t live far from Athens have simply gone home to recover.

“I can’t imagine feeling as bad as I did without having my mom to take care of me,” said Audrey Batts, a senior from Dalton, Ga. who contracted the virus the second week of school.

Mark Towers, a fifth-year from Augusta, also went home to get over his swine flu. “I had a 105° fever and I was having hot and cold flashes,” he said. “Being in the comfort of my own home and away from everyone helped me rest and get over it much faster.”

While there are many symptoms of swine flu — fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, according to the CDC — most students find that fatigue is the most difficult to cope with.

“Even though I don’t have the swine flu anymore, I still feel exhausted,” said Carvalho. “I get so tired just from walking to class.”

Batts said she spent days sleeping when she had the virus. “I laid in bed and basically didn’t move until I felt better,” she said.

As swine flu continues to grow nationally, students can do a few things to help prevent the spread of the virus on campus.

Liz Rachun, health communications coordinator at the University Health Center, says that they are promoting frequent hand washing, covering one’s nose and mouth with a tissue when sneezing or coughing and avoiding contact with sick people.

Towers said that he was careful about germs once he found out that swine flu was going around the University, but doesn’t think it made much of a difference. “I was washing my hands all the time, but I still got it,” he said.

Another precaution students can take is getting a seasonal flu shot. The vaccine is expected to arrive at the health center in October according to Rachun, but there are many places in Athens that are already offering the shot.

While getting vaccinated is a popular method of flu prevention, Rachun warns that getting the shot too early in the season could be problematic.

“The vaccine’s level of protection can weaken a few months after getting the shot, which can make people more susceptible to catching influenza during the virus’s peak season,” she said.
Nevertheless, many students will get vaccinated this season.

Towers said he plans to get a flu shot after he has fully recovered from swine flu and he is encouraging others to do the same. “I’m telling everyone I know to get a flu shot,” he said. “No one should have to go through what I went through if they don’t have to.

Edited by Stone Irvin

Universities wrestle with influenza, student body

By Stone Irvin

This school year administrators are adjusting to the strains caused not by schoolwork but the virus H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, by exposing students to an array of sanitary practices to prevent the disease’s spread.

Georgia is listed on the Centers for Disease Control Web site as one of six states reporting widespread influenza activity. Kathryn Moss, the executive administrative assistant of campus life at Emory University, sent an e-mail to students and their parents that listed Georgia as the No. 1 state in the nation for reported H1N1 cases.

Liz Rachun, health communications coordinator for the University of Georgia Health Center, said that as of Sept. 8, 285 cases of swine flu have been diagnosed on campus. But Rachun also pointed out that the virus is not hitting students as hard as once expected.

“A lot of students aren’t coming in because they don’t need to,” she said.

She stressed that over-the-counter medicines like ibuprofen combined with judicious rest are the best remedy for swine flu.

“The good thing is it’s not as aggressive or virulent as other strains of flu,” said Dr. Christopher Whalen, professor of epidemiology at the University of Georgia. But while swine flu may be mild compared to some strains of influenza this fact has not stopped schools from working to hinder its flow.

The most obvious measure universities are taking to halt H1N1 is the promotion of CDC guidelines for keeping healthy. Because of these campaigns to reach students, most now know to cover up coughs and sneezes, avoid touching the eyes and nose, wash their hands regularly and stay home if feeling sick.

Additional measures include self-isolation dormitories to accommodate sick students. The University of Georgia temporarily used Family and Graduate Housing for this purpose but has decided to focus more on encouraging sanitary practices in students instead. Emory, on the other hand, has continued to use its self-isolation dorm.

“It’s voluntary, and everyone has taken us up on it,” said Bridget Riordan, dean of students and campus life at Emory. She said the Turman South dormitory, though due to be demolished, was kept open by the administration in case it was needed to accommodate students sick with swine flu.

“I’m from Bombay, India so going home wasn’t really an option for me,” said Simran Khosa, an English major at Emory who contracted swine flu early in the semester. She said Turman South was a good environment to recover from H1N1 because it was “not a hospital, it was like any other dorm.”

While Riordan counts Emory fortunate for having a dorm available for self-isolation, especially for students like Khosa who are unable to go home to recover, Whalen and Rachun both said that UGA is too large a school for a self-isolation dorm to be effective.

“Isolating 100 people like that might make a difference but it wouldn’t be my priority,” Whalen said. He also said that the guidelines for cleanliness should be enough to curb transmission of swine flu.

But while H1N1 has thus far proven less virulent than once feared, complications and questions about seasonal flu and are now being raised.

“The question on my mind,” Whalen said “is whether it’s possible to get H1N1 in September and turn around and get seasonal flu in January.”

This question has administrators taking precautions on the issue of seasonal flu vaccine. Rachun pointed out that getting seasonal flu vaccines too early can render the recipient vulnerable in January and February, the peak time for catching seasonal influenza. Nevertheless, Emory and UGA are strongly encouraging students to get immunized.

“We started [seasonal] flu vaccination today,” Riordan said Tuesday, “We’re saying ‘Come one, come all; get your flu vaccination today.’”

Edited by Lauren Bellamy