Swine Flu Comin' At-Choo

You should have listened to your parents when they told you not to go to Cancun for spring break. No, not because of the warring drug lords. Or because of your penchant for tequila shots and wet t-shirt contests. In fact, the reason you shouldn't have gone to Mexico involved neither alcohol nor sex! It was… THE SWINE FLU!

Just kidding. Spring Break happened way before the swine flu pandemic cropped up. And according to Harvard University Health Services Director David S. Rosenthal ’59, that means you're off the hook for your jaunt south of the border:

So unless your southern spring break was a month long, you're probably in the clear.

More flu deets from UHS, after the jump.

Nevertheless, FlyBy knows that some of you are feeling feverish and nauseous just reading this post, and that your parents have been calling for hourly updates about whether any Harvard students have been diagnosed with the swine flu. Rest easy, UHS has not received any complaints of swine flu-like symptoms from any members of the Harvard community. They have even posted a link to FAQs about the swine flu on their homepage.

But if you do start to feel sick, make the trek over to UHS where they will hopefully treat you with something stronger than ibuprofen. And as we learned before with Babson norovirus outbreak, washing your hands is the best way to avoid getting sick. "The most important thing for staying healthy is good hygiene," Rosenthal says. "When you cough, you should cough into your elbow, and not into the phone or onto your friends.”

Sage advice. FlyBy wishes our roommate would follow it.

Photo courtesy Scott Bauer/Wikimedia Commons