Fighting the Flu

Winter has arrived in full force, bringing with it arctic weather and everyone's favorite virus, influenza. Commonly known as the flu, influenza is a respiratory disease that affects 10 to 20 percent of the national population each year -- and its effects are no fun.

"You feel like you've been run over by a truck," Health Services Medical Director Margaret Higham said.

Health Services has been helping students deal with this year's particularly severe flu season: because of their close living arrangements, college students face a greater risk of infection than the general population.

Each year, an anti-flu vaccine becomes available in the fall. The vaccine, however, is not 100 percent effective. Doctors from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) make an early determination of which strain of virus will spread worldwide the next year. The selected strain of virus is then grown to make a vaccine, which is tested for effectiveness. If approved, the virus is grown in quantities large enough to vaccinate the U.S. population.

This process takes time and is somewhat unreliable. Some strains don't grow that well, and, as it did this year, the CDC sometimes selects the wrong strain.

Unfortunately, this year the doctors bet on the wrong team -- the virus strain they selected for the vaccine was not the season's dominant strain. As a result, though this year's vaccine still provides protection, it is not completely effective.

Luckily, the vaccine is not the only preventative measure one can take. Higham advises students to wash their hands frequently, avoid sharing beverages, and stay away from sick people -- even roommates and significant others. However, "people are contagious for several days before they really feel the symptoms, so it's really hard to prevent [contraction of the virus]," Higham said.

According to Higham, flu symptoms include high fever, headache, body aches, dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, and fatigue. She suggests that students with these symptoms take Ibuprofen, Aleve, or Tylenol to reduce the fever.

Higham encouraged students with a high fever to come to Health Services. "Don't go to class, go to bed," she said. "So many of the kids with flu said, 'Well, I couldn't come to Health Services because I had to write a paper and go to classes,' but they are just spreading it to everyone else."

Though there is no cure for the flu, there is some hope for those who contract the virus. New antiviral drugs, if taken within 48 hours of the first sign of symptoms, can reduce the duration of the illness and possibly decrease the chance of serious complications.

One of the better known versions of this drug is Tamiflu. According to the drug's website, Tamiflu prevents the virus's spread from cell to cell. Clearly, time is of the essence: if the virus has already spread to many cells, the drug is relatively ineffective.

Last semester, freshman Alex Liveris did not have time on her side. Liveris contracted the flu during finals and ended up in the hospital with a 104 degree fever. "I hurt so badly I couldn't stop crying," she said.

By the time she decided to go to the hospital, it was too late for the medicine to work effectively. The doctor told Liveris that she had already been through the worst part of her illness.

When Liveris initially went to Health Services with her symptoms, she was not tested for the flu. "If that had been done before I admitted myself to the hospital, that would have saved me a lot of pain," she said.

However, Higham said that antiviral drugs are not necessarily a quick fix. An antiviral does not work "like you would think taking a drug for an illness would usually work," she said, adding that "we don't think it makes you less contagious."

According to the Tamiflu website, in two large clinical trials patients who took Tamiflu felt better 1.3 days faster than patients who did not take the drug. The length of each person's illness varies, however, so shorter durations of the flu are not necessarily linked to the drug. "Usually people with the flu have a fever for five to seven days," Higham said.

The medicines can also have some side effects, most commonly nausea and vomiting. Before taking an anti-flu drug, then, students should factor the potential adverse effects into their decision. "You have to weigh for yourself what the downsides and the benefits are," Highman said.