'Tis The Season To Stay Healthy!

By Keri Waterhouse

Things as simple as a hand shake, a small peck on the cheek, or a friendly hug can help get one into trouble during this terrible flu season. The scary "swine flu" or known now as H1N1 has traveled it's way around the world and infected more than a quarter-million people and has caused more than 2,800 deaths.It's a scary thing to think about. We all get that nasty bug called the flu, so no one really thinks about it.

I remember when I first heard about the swine flu last May. Everyone was freaking out about it. It was in Texas and out of the U.S. Some people even cancelled their flights to go on vacations. To me it wasn't that big of a deal. I never thought it would actually get near me. When reading about the synptoms you would think you just had the common flu. The symptoms include; fever (100F/37.8C) or greater, sore throat, cough, headache, body aches, fatigue, vomiting, and diarrhea. The way things are spreading is by washing your hands after sneezing or coughing, touching your eyes or mouth, kissing, touching others that are sick, or just not taking care of yourself.

I never really thought anything of this sickness until I came back to campus this fall and we were told that students at neighboring colleges had confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, and told us that it probably wouldn't be long and that virus would find its way onto our campus. Sure enough, a week later it did. Simpson had its first case of the H1N1 virus last week.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/13/france.kiss/index.html