Common Cold Strikes Campus; Students See Uncommon Causes

Katherine L. Strobos '91 said that she caught a cold worrying about whether she got into a lotteried class. Quincy House residents blame one South Carolinian who hates the Northern climate. They all seem to agree that the common cold, with many symptoms and few cures, is spreading rapidly through the campus.

Dr. Warren E.C. Wacker, Director of Harvard University Health Services (UHS), said that the present cold epidemic is "not unusual; we get it every fall." Still, Wacker noted that the cold has struck Harvard students about two weeks earlier than it usually does.

To some, it may just be the recent spell of cool, rainy weather in Cambridge that is responsible for this outbreak of sickness. But others blame simple demographics.

Ailing Strobos remarked, "Freshman Week brought together all these germs from all different parts of the country. That's what you call diversity at Harvard."

Wacker agreed that the cold is often spread by students who bring from home local strains of the virus. While they may have aquired particular immunity to these regional forms of the cold, students from other areas have not, he said.

Another University health official said that academic pressures could also explain the increase in student sickness. Dr. Randolph Catlin, Chief of Mental Health Services at Harvard, noted that several scientific studies have shown that stress can weaken immune responses, which in turn makes people more susceptable to a cold. Still, the doctor said he would not attribute the recent wave of colds on any stress he had noticed at Harvard.

But for some Quincy House residents, colds are more personal than medical. Rather than blame their illness on the weather, regional forms of the virus or stress, they choose to blame it on Joshua F. Thorpe '88, the sickly senior reported.

Thorpe, in turn, blamed his cold on the "bogus" Cambridge weather. The South Carolina resident said he had troubleadjusting to the climate here. But he added thatthe rumor that he is responsible for the coldepidemic is "a vicious lie."

However, other than blaming someone else, thereis little one can do to relieve a cold. Wackeradvised students without a fever to take lots offluids and some asprin. Students with a fevershould "come see UHS," he said.

Asked for any final comments, Wacker said, "Ihope I don't get [the cold]--but I usually do.