Along with death and taxes, flu season is just one of those certainties in life. However, students and health center professionals agree this year has been worse than normal.
"At least 10 people I know that I’m close friends with got the flu around the same time that I did, so I think this year is way worse than previous years,” fourth-year accounting student Mary Kate Nicholson said.
Van Haygood, director of clinical and ancillary services at Thompson Student Health Center, said that there's been a little more flu than in years past, but "not to the point that we're overly concerned."
The Health Center gave around 4,000 flu shots this year, which is a record for USC. Approximately 700 students students were tested for the flu and about 55 percent tested positive.
Nicholson was one of those students who tested positive.
"I never had the flu before, and at first I thought it was the common cold," she said, "but then when I had to Uber to get to my class, I realized it was something more."
Nicholson said she did not get the flu shot but she would be getting it now.
Haygood said that someone can still get the flu even if they've had the vaccine, but it is much less severe than if they hadn't. Second-year pre-pharmacy student Abby Mellott received the flu shot and still contracted type A and type B of the virus.
"The doctor told me that if I hadn’t gotten a flu shot I probably would’ve been hospitalized, because it’s pretty rare to get both types," Mellott said.
The Health Center generally prescribes the Tamiflu for those who test positive and have been experiencing symptoms for 24-48 hours. However, if the symptoms have been present for longer, the antiviral is not effective, and they instead recommend other cold medicines to treat the symptoms.
The Health Center is still offering flu shots, but they're not as beneficial now because a person's body doesn't adjust for the vaccine to take effect for about 3-4 weeks.