Break out the tissues, Airborne and cough syrup: It’s that time of the season. The beginning of spring means more sick students on campus, according to Health Resource Center (HRC) Coordinator and Student Health Services (SHS) assistant director Nop Ratanasiripong.
While an increase in the number of students with the flu, cold or bad sore throat may initially cause concern, this is a typical result with the change of seasons.
“This is the season people will get sick more often,” Ratanasiripong said. “Usually in the winter to springtime, you will get more cases of allergies, more flu and more colds.”
What starts out as allergies caused by seasonal change makes students more susceptible to other illnesses. Allergies can often quickly escalate into severe colds, headaches, bad sore throats and influenza, Ratanasiripong said.
Combine that with the close proximity of students to one another in classrooms, study groups, the University Student Union, University Library and residence halls, and the once sparse number of colds, sore throats or flu cases can quickly grow.
According to SHS nurse Kathleen Clark, a little over a quarter of her patients are flu and cold patients during this season.
Still, the number of patients at SHS or the HRC is not abnormal for this time of year, even with the larger number of students seeking help for their ailments. There is only a slight increase in the number of patients because the busiest time of the year at the SHS is actually in the beginning of fall semester and any time the school opens after a prolonged break, Ratanasiripong said.
However, part of the reason for the small size of the increase is also that some students never go to the SHS for help. In a group interview of eight students living in International House who have all gotten sick since spring started, only one student said he had gone to the SHS.
“If you live in the dorms and one person gets sick, by the end of the week most everyone else is sick,” said Avery Holleman, a junior who lived in the residence halls for three years but now lives off campus. He got the flu from his roommate and some other schoolmates who live on campus, but said he had no time to go to the Student Health Center and said it was a waste of time.
Among the ill students who do go to the SHC, the most common sicknesses are cold, severe headaches, sore throats and the flu. Students also often go to the SHC to get treated for various infections, such as sinus and respiratory, STDs or to get X-rays, Ratanasiripong said.
Currently, the increasing number of sick students does not pose a major threat to the campus or community. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services watches the numbers and kinds of illnesses very closely, according to Ratanasiripong, and will alert the HRC to provide more health education and services if there is any spike in the numbers.
Preventative measures include frequent and thorough hand-washing and coughing into a sleeve or your elbow instead of your hand or even a tissue.
“For any infectious disease with respiratory mucous or saliva, good hand-washing technique and coughing technique will help prevent you from getting the disease,” Ratanasiripong said.
