Rebekah Markillie |
With the low temperatures and snow of last weekend, and the flu season extending from about October to May, many students are still in the throes of nausea, fever and phlegm.
Senior Rebecca Bell doesn’t think she has the flu, but has been sick since Saturday, and knows of about six or seven other students who have been sick in the past couple weeks.
“I also played in the snow without proper warm weather gear, so I think that contributed,” Bell said.
Bell had a sore throat, runny nose, muscles pains and a low fever. Some students, however, didn’t escape the flu season with a short cold. On the national level, flu activity is much higher than the usual flu season.
“We’re above what’s considered epidemic,” said Assistant Director of Nursing Services Susan Chisum.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, for week five, Jan. 26- Feb. 1, the percentage of deaths reported to the CDC was 1.3 percent higher than the epidemic threshold of 7.2 percent for that week.
As of Feb. 11 there have been over 20,270 cases of the flu and 40 flu-related deaths nationwide.
Symptoms for the flu can last anywhere between one to two weeks and most people are contagious one day before and five to seven days after symptoms appear.
During dead week, when most UP students were in the Library cramming for tests and finishing thesis papers, junior Brenagh Sanford was in bed with the flu. She started feeling poorly the Sunday before finals and ended up throwing up Monday night and was bedridden through Thursday afternoon.
“I slept all day,” Sanford said, “I got to the point where I was tired of sleep. But I never had an actual good night’s sleep because my joints hurt and I was really achy.”
When she emailed her professors about getting extensions on her finals, Sanford felt that they didn’t believe her. Sanford’s hall director had to email her professors before they allowed her to get extensions on the exams. Her last final was Jan. 24.
“They weren’t taking me seriously like, ‘oh sure, you’re sick the week of finals, yeah,’” she said.
When sophomore Justin Plummer got the flu last month, it started off as a headache on Sunday.
“Honestly, it kind of felt like I had a hangover, but it wasn’t,” he said. “(Monday) in the afternoon I started feeling really bad. I had a fever, probably around 100 degrees. We didn’t check it though but I was having cold sweats, it was really bad.”
By Tuesday Plummer went to urgent care and was told he had the flu. But unlike Sanford, Plummer didn’t have any nausea.
“I didn’t throw up, so the fever was probably the most exciting thing,” he said.
According to Plummer he slept for most of the week and was feeling better by Saturday.
“I’m better now,” he said. “But like, I still have the after-sick coughs.”
Prevention
This year’s main strain is H1N1, or swine flu. According to Chisum, children are more susceptible to this strain because they haven’t been exposed to it before.
“The strain was around many years ago,” she said. “Young people don’t have any defenses (for the virus).”
According to flu.gov, the flu season can start as early as October and go as late as May. To prepare, the optimal time to get vaccinated is October to November. The University of Portland Health Center provides vaccinations at $15 for students, faculty and staff during the fall but ran out in January. Since the vaccines are expensive and don’t keep for a long time, they don’t order many.
“Usually we’re not very busy (at the vaccination clinics),” said Chisum. “We try to hit the amount for those who will get it in November.”
Some students, however, opt out of the vaccine.
“I have an anti-flu vaccine stance and I’m very strong in that stance,” Bell said. “I don’t really see the point. I think my body can fight things off naturally so I don’t see the point in getting a flu shot.”
Chisum, however, stresses the importance of being vaccinated and has been “trying to blanket the campus” with information in an effort to spread the word.
“We sent out an announcement about why (student and faculty) should get a vaccine,” she said
New Law - City of Portland Sick Leave
With the instatement of Portland Sick Time Ordinance, UP student employees can earn paid sick leave. For every 30 hours of work, a student earns 1 hours of paid sick leave for a maximum total of 80 hours.
