Health center sees cases of students with similar symptoms
The flu didn't make it to USC this year, but in its place, a different illness has started spreading through campus, and Student Health Services isn't entirely sure what it is.
"The sore throat, low-grade fever, sort of respiratory, coughy, drippy thing?" asked Nicole Carrico, public relations coordinator for Student Health Services, when a reporter inquired about a recent spate of sicknesses among students.
The Thomson Student Health Center has received patients with those symptoms over the last week or so, and the illness had even spread to its staff, Carrico said.
"We have it too," she said. "I myself went to the doctor last week, and it was diagnosed as bacterial, but a couple of my very close co-workers also went to the doctor, and they diagnosed it as viral ... We don't have a name for it, but we know that it's here."
Elsewhere in the state, incidence of norovirus has jumped compared to last year, according to Adam Myrick, a public information director for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Between Jan. 11 and Feb. 22 of this year, the agency investigated 33 outbreaks of the illness around the state; last year, it saw only eight outbreaks over the same period. Those outbreaks have cropped up in schools, retirement homes and other spots with shared spaces and lots of people, Myrick said.
The illness tends to clear up within two or three days, and symptoms of norovirus generally include nausea, cramping, diarrhea, vomiting and a low-grade fever, Myrick said.
According to Dr. Charles McKenzie, the medical director of SHS, cases of that nature have made their way onto USC's campus.
"We've had plenty of cases with these symptoms, but there is no easy test for norovirus," McKenzie told Carrico in an email. "There does not appear to be an outbreak that would prompt us to send samples to DHEC at this point."
Carrico also said the number of students visiting the health center has been fairly steady compared with past years.
"I know that we haven't had a significant spike in students that have come in," she said. "With the low-grade fever and sinus issues, no more than usual."
The virus can linger for hours, possibly even days, on doorknobs, railings and other shared surfaces, Myrick said, so it can travel between people quickly.
"The best thing to do — and it's going to sound very cliché and kind of 'old-timey' — is going to be to wash your hands," he said. "Very simply, just continue to wash your hands throughout the day, because the virus does survive for so long on different surfaces."