By Ripon Media in College Days on February 6, 2020
Kathy Welch shares advice for staying healthy
By Connor Renshaw
Influenza under an electron microscope.
Public domain photo courtesy of Centers for Disease Control Public Health Image Library.
If you think a lot more people have gotten sick this semester, then you would be right.
“Every year we have influenza on campus but this flu season we have been hit especially hard,” Director of Health Services Kathy Welch said.
Health Services estimates that it has treated between 80 and 100 confirmed cases of influenza since the beginning of the semester.
For students who want to avoid the flu, Welch advises that they:
- Limit contact with sick people
- Wash hands often with soap and water for approximately 20 seconds at a time and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available.
- Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs.
- Cover mouth and nose with a tissue if they cough or sneeze.
- “Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth because germs spread this way.”
For students who are feeling sick, Welch asks that they visit Health Services for evaluation and “limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.”
Welch also reached out to faculty to explain that students who do have the flu have been asked not to attend classes until they are fever-free for 24 hours.