While South Carolina just topped 100 flu deaths and the CDC is proclaiming the worst flu season in a decade, the University of South Carolina has seen only a quarter of the flu cases it had at this point last year.
For students, though, it seems like everyone on campus is sick.
“My whole floor actually all went through some version of sickness last week,” said Rachel Yanders, first-year international business student and Capstone resident. “We all shared bleach … and cleaned everything.”
At this time in 2017, USC Student Health Services had diagnosed about 370 students with the flu. Now, they're just reaching 80.
“It’s not as bad” as last year, said Van Haygood, the director for Clinical and Ancillary Services at USC.
As typical with the flu, victims nationwide are mainly children and those over 65. The community nature of a college campus facilitates the spread of the virus, but young adults are also naturally more resistant and healthy.
“This is a kind of a community within a community,” Haygood said. “In the dormitories everybody tends to pass stuff back and forth, everybody that goes into and out of Russell House uses the same door push ... if you can’t use soap and water, carry hand sanitizer.”
This year, there's been an 11 percent increase from last year in students getting the flu shot. It is still available for free for students at the Center of Health and Well-Being.
“I just reordered the flu vaccine ... and we’ve been ordering it about once a twice or week every week since we started,” Haygood said.
It takes anywhere from 10 days to two weeks for the vaccination to go into effect, but it will lessen the severity of the flu for the recipients of the shot.
While there have been lower numbers of people going in to be tested for the flu, these numbers don't take into account the students who go elsewhere for a diagnosis or never go to the doctor at all.
Because the flu is a virus, there is no real treatment for it. Tamiflu can shorten the duration of the symptoms, but there is no real way to stop the flu once you have it. For that reason, Student Health Services advises students to get the flu vaccine to lessen the severity of the virus and to wash your hands to avoid it all together.
Common symptoms of the flu include fever, headache, a cough, sore throat and body aches.