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Freshmen on campus may find more in the dorms than new found freedom.
SHARI S. COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
ii
s high school seniors and college freshmen look ahead to
their first year of college, they typically focus on new
friends, classes, sports and parties. Their families may urge
them to "eat right" and "remember to get some sleep," but
the advice is often spoken and heard without full understanding of its
importance.
However, news that a Michigan State University student was hospi-
talized this fall with meningococcal disease, a bacterial form of
meningitis, and a student at the University of Michigan was treated
for viral meningitis, has raised questions about health risks on college
campuses. Since the bacterial form of meningitis can be very serious,
sometimes causing brain damage and even death, its recurrence at
MSU raised concerns. Two years ago, three MSU students had
meningitis and two died.
Fortunately, meningo-
coccal meningitis is rare
— only one individual
in 100,000 among the
Eastern Michigan University's health
general population con-
service recommends these precautions
tract the disease and 3.8
to reduce risk for meningitis:
per 100,000 college stu
• Don't share food or beverages
dents in residence halls,
• Don't share cigarettes
according to U-M statis-
•
Stay home when sick (this lessens
tics. With such a low
exposure to other germs).
incidence, this form of
• Balance rest, school and play
meningitis is "not a
•
Eat healthy.
major problem," accord-
•
Avoid
excessive use of alcohol.
ing to Dr. Jeffrey Band,
• Avoid smoke or smoky environ-
an internist and infec-
ments.
tious disease specialist
U-M's health service concurs with
associated with
these suggestions and also recom-
Beaumont Hospital.
mends:
Meningitis means
• Avoid exposure to people who are
inflammation of the
coughing.
membrane covering the
• Avoid kissing.
brain and spinal cord.
According to Dr. Band,
ampus Advice
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many people carry the bacteria without becoming ill. "Symptoms
include fevers, nausea, vomiting and the worst headache the person
has ever had. If diagnosed early, it is treatable with antibiotics," Dr.
Band says.
"It is a contagious disease transmitted through respiratory droplets.
For college students, there is a slight increased risk in the,first year of
school while in the dorm,7 says Dr. Band. This was borne out by two
1998 studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control. A study
published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association
found that Maryland college students living on campus had a higher
incidence of the disease than those living off-campus.
Increased risk is believed to result from living in "close quarters"
where infectious diseases are most likely to spread and because of the
lifestyle common among college freshmen, especially- those living in
dorms or other group situations.
"A lack of sleep, poor nutri-
tion, smoking and alcohol
reduce your body's
immune system.
Students live in close
proximity and share
beverage containers
and cigarettes," says
Dr. Howard Saulles,
interim associate
director of the U-M
Health Service. He
notes that there have
been no cases of
meningococcal meningi-
tis at the Ann Arbor
campus since 1995.
As a result of reduced
immunity and group living,
colds, upper respiratory
infections, influenza
and mononucleosis
are very common
among college
students, Dr.
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