Students sickened by flu symptoms

Students are just plain sick. Sick with the flu, that is. "I had midterms all last week and I was really sick," College sophomore Asha Bhatiani said yesterday. "I was really tired. I had a headache, a very bad cough, a very bad fever. I had almost everything except nausea." She said she slept for over 48 hours after her first round of tests. "I was on so many drugs," Bhatiani said. "I even hallucinated. I kept thinking someone was in my room using my computer. I was terrified for about half an hour, then I peeked out [from the covers] but there was no one there." Bhatiani is just one of many University students suffering from the flu and flu-like symptoms this winter. Marjeanne Collins, director of Student Health, said last week that a flu epidemic has taken the campus by storm. "We're in the midst of a flu epidemic that commonly occurs at this time of year," she said. "It varies in severity, [but] this year is a little heavier than last year or even two years ago." Collins added that Student Health has been overrun with sick students coming in for medicine and examinations. "[We're] pretty overwhelmed with the number of kids coming in," she said. "We have anywhere from six to seven medical providers a day who would each see about 20 patients and we've got to be seeing at least 60 to 70 people a day with [flu]." Wharton sophomore Karen Klinger said last night that she caught the flu from Bhatiani, her roommate. "How am I feeling now? Much better," she said. "How was I feeling last week? Like shit." Klinger added that she suffered from the usual flu-like symptoms. "I had the headache, the sore throat, the coughing, the runny nose, the fever," she said. "I pretty much had it all." Collins said that if a student does become sick, she recommends drinking plenty of fluids and getting sufficient rest. She added that students should also go to Student Health right away. "[Students] should be checked so they don't get a secondary bacterial infection," she said. College junior Felica Scales said yesterday that this is sound advice. "Getting checked out at the very beginning is worth it," she said. "My sicknesses got so bad that I developed an ear infection, sinus infection, strep throat, bronchitis with an underlying bronchial infection and my lungs also got infected." Scales added that while she is feeling better now, she has been sick for the past two and a half weeks. "I went twice to Student Health and eventually had to fly home to Georgia," she said. "I spent one week at home. I'm pretty much getting over everything now." Scales added that she knows a lot of other sick students. "I've run into a lot of people that have colds with runnuy nose and sore throat," she said. "I also know a lot of people losing thier voices. I know a lot of people with mono." Collins said that, unfortunately, there is not much that a healthy student can do to avoid being sick. "There isn't a lot you can do [to avoid getting sick]," Collins said. "[Usually the flu] is spread through the air. So avoid places where there are a lot of sick people." Staff writer Jordana Horn contributed to this story.