David Morrison, a 19-year old applied physiology and kinesiology sophomore at UF, planned to celebrate with friends on the first Friday of classes, but he found himself passed out on his couch with muscle aches and pains instead.
Morrison, along with multiple students across UF, has already caught the flu.
Influenza, also known as the flu, is a contagious viral infection of the respiratory passages, typically causing muscle aches and pains along with a fever.
Though Alachua County’s influenza state is currently mild, influenza across Florida is considered widespread, said Catherine Seemann, advertising, marketing and media coordinator for the Student Health Care Center.
Thirty-eight Florida counties have reported mild activity and 20 have reported moderate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Activity levels refer to geographic spread, not the severity of the illness, according to the report.
She said it is impossible to predict when the flu will hit Gainesville. The virus is continuing to increase throughout Florida, and when it hits here, she said, it will spread fast.
As a way to prevent the spread of this viral infection, the Student Health Care Center has been giving free flu shots to students since September, Seemann said.
Although Morrison got a flu shot last year, he didn’t get one this year.
“[The flu shot] was never presented to me as an option this time around,” he said.
Seemann said students come in explaining how the flu has never hit them to the degree they couldn’t move or go to class, but she said they got lucky.
“The flu is unpredictable,” she said. “You never know how one strain [of the virus] is going to affect you versus another.”
Nursing student Katherine Behel, 20, got her shot in September. She said the nursing school requires students to get shots, but Behel would have gotten one anyway.
Anyone is susceptible to the virus.
“Not getting a vaccination, you put everyone around you at risk,” Seemann said. “There’s a long window where the virus is still contagious.”
