American University students face an increase in illness during midterms season

By: Lauren Patetta

WASHINGTON – An influx of illnesses like strep throat and the flu has left American University students sick during the height of midterm season the past few weeks.

Dr. David S. Reitman, the medical director at American’s student health center, said the diseases circulating are not out of the ordinary, especially for college students. College campuses often create a perfect breeding ground for germs.

“Over the last three or four months we’ve seen a little more strep going around than we typically do. The flu kind of came in little spurts,” said Reitman. “What we’re seeing right now is mostly the typical things you see in college students: colds, sore throats and viral stuff.”

Though there is no major uptick in the number of flu diagnoses, Reitman said he has still seen a decent amount of them at the health center recently. According to Reitman, the flu shot this year was more effective at flu prevention than in previous years. This has made the disease much less severe in students who received the vaccine.

“The course of illness was much more benign than it would have been had they not gotten the vaccine,” said Reitman. “Typically, our students who didn’t get the vaccine and got the flu were much, much sicker.”

Sophomore Sophie Hardy was one of those students struck with the flu despite getting the vaccine. The week before spring break, she was forced to miss all of her classes due to a high fever. She did not go to the health center on campus, instead, she went to CVS MinuteClinic for a diagnosis. Hardy said that she has noticed a significant number of students dealing with illnesses in the past weeks.

“I know a lot of people who are still out sick with the flu, and a lot of people who have strep throat,” said Hardy. “I have about three friends on antibiotics for strep.”

Other American students like Blaine Mengistu-Gunn and Shahad Mohieldin have also seen a lot of sick students on their residence hall floors and in their social circles.

“One of our friends doesn’t have a voice right now, actually,” said Mengistu-Gunn. “Definitely a lot of people are sick.”

Both students have their own strategies for avoiding illness on campus.

“(I) stay away from those (sick) people, number one,” said Mohieldin. “I wash my hands after being in a public area and be sure that I have hand sanitizer if I feel that someone is sick around me.”

Reitman personally recommended that students looking to avoid disease get plenty of sleep, eat well and exercise. Sleep, he said, is vitally important, because sleep deprivation suppresses the immune system and makes students more susceptible to illness.         

“The most important thing is keeping your hands off of your face as much as possible, using Purell or washing your hands as much as possible – not compulsively – but enough … to kill any viruses that people are getting from, like, touching door knobs, that type of thing,” said Reitman.

This article was originally written for my Spring 2019 Reporting class