PULLMAN, Wash. – Federal health officials announced recently that the winter flu season is here – the latest start in 29 years. And while some students at Washington State University have been diagnosed with influenza, so far it isn’t packing much of a punch.
But another germ is.
For the past six weeks, a nasty cold virus has been sending students to the Pullman campus’s Health and Wellness Services (HWS) clinic, according to executive director Dr. Bruce Wright. The most common complaints are severe nasal congestion, sneezing and a sore throat, he said, with the acute phase lasting three or four days.
“After that, milder symptoms can linger for two weeks,” he said. “We’re seeing some flu, but mostly what’s bringing students in are the bad colds.”
The good news, then, is that most of the influenza cases have been relatively mild; the bad news is that the cold virus’s symptoms are anything but mild.
The clinic’s waiting room tells the story. On this day, five sniffling students sat slack-shouldered with wadded-up tissues in their hands.
No Rodney Dangerfield here
“The common cold is the Rodney Dangerfield of infectious diseases it gets no respect,” wrote Temple University’s Dr. Bennet Lorber in a 1996 paper in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Although colds are the most “frequent and economically important of all infectious diseases,” they get little attention in medical schools, conferences and literature, he said.
But at WSU, colds get plenty of respect. Since the semester began, medical professionals at HWS have seen roughly 900 students for upper respiratory infections, sinus infections, bronchitis and tonsillitis, according to HWS records. The bulk of those students entered the clinic’s doors in the past six weeks, said Wright.
“We’ve been very busy,” he said.
In an effort to stem the spread of colds and flu, the clinic has launched a type of germ warfare. On the walls are posters with blaring reminders to WASH HANDS. Hand sanitizing dispensers are found in hallways, as are bucketsful of crimson-colored bottles of antibacterial gel.
Easy to catch
That’s because all it takes to catch a cold virus is the crank of a virus-speckled door handle, the push of an elevator button or the tap-tap of a shared keyboard – and then bringing your hand to your face. Virus particles are swept into your nose or throat, where they enter a host cell and insert their DNA.
You are now in the early stages of the common cold. Symptoms may develop within 10 hours, meaning that the day after you shake hands with that sneezing political candidate, you’ll be sneezing too.
To treat it, the best thing is to rest and drink plenty of fluids, said Wright. And remember that it’s not the virus poisoning your body that’s making you feel miserable: “It’s your body’s immune system responding to the virus,” he explained.
Additionally, when the immune system is left off-kilter by the cold, sometimes secondary infections such as sinusitis and bronchitis slip in, he said.
31 flu cases in Washington
Just because the influenza sledgehammer hasn’t battered WSU or most places in the U.S. (only six states, including California and Nevada, are reporting widespread activity) doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet, said HWS medical director, Dr. Dennis Garcia, who sees influenza-like symptoms in students almost daily. Even in its mild form, flu is not a nuisance disease, he said, and the virus is still gaining a foothold.
“Cases are inching upward each week,” he said.
Since early February, nine students have tested positive for influenza, mostly the A-H3N2 strain. They exhibited headaches, fever and chills, a dry cough, body aches and fatigue, said Garcia. In most students, the symptoms were less intense and didn’t last as long as those seen in previous years.
Even so, don’t dismiss the idea of getting a flu shot, Garcia advised.
“Influenza is inherently unpredictable.”