Coughing into college; College Health Concerns

College comes with a lot of new things: New you, new school, new people, and new illnesses. According to College freshman Molly Zardus, “it is so easy to get sick in college, everyone is in close living corders all sharing the same bathroom and the same eating space. If one person gets sick we all do.”

    Statistics show that students are more likely to get sick their first semester of college over any other time. Research suggests that due to a lack of sleep, diet and stress the body has a hard time adjusting to the new environment.

College freshman Kirsten Grzybowski says, “I am very fortunate that I have not been sick yet. I share a bathroom with multiple stalls and showers with all of the girls on my floor. You can see how easily the germs could spread.” According to the government health department,  coming within three feet of a contagious germ increases the likelihood that a person could be infected.

So, what happens when and if you do get sick in college? Zardus says, “ There is a health center where they have doctors and you are able to get prescriptions if you are really sick.” The University of Maryland has a flu and cold prevention center as well to help students stay healthy. Zardus also informed us that “ This year there was this one college freshman that got a virus called the Adenovirus and she unfortunately died from it. So UMD took it pretty seriously making sure that all the freshman knew about the resources on campus.”

   At Radford, it is a different story, however. Grzybowski said that at Radford “we do have a health suite but I couldn’t even tell you where it is and it’s not open on the weekends so if you get sick on a Saturday or Sunday you have to wait until Monday to get medicine.”

While it seems Radford and University of Maryland handle illnesses very differently, both girls said that the university watches out for their students. Zardus added, “if a teacher or coach see’s that you’re not feeling well or you don’t look well they can send you to the health suite and you have to go get looked at.”

So yes college is a new you, a new year, and new friends, but it does not have to be new illnesses.