Mono, Pink Eye and Scabies -OH MY!!
Sep 30 '00
To be honest I actually can’t decide which is the biggest breeding ground for germs – a daycare center or a college dormitory. I’d say it’s just about a dead even tie based on the number of illnesses my children brought home when they were in one, and the number of repeat illnesses I witnessed while enjoying my three years of dorm life.
Of course one reason so many germs lingered in my dormitory was that it was built during a safety phase the college was going through when they decided to deter students from jumping or falling out a window during a party by making sure not one single window in the dorm opened up. So much for having any fresh air in your room.
That was brilliant idea – have all the windows welded shut so that every germ that comes in when classes start in September can linger, grow and intensify in strength until the next May when classes get out. Yeah our dorm had a maid, but I just think she just pushed the germs around – moving them from area to area with her germ-ridden sponge. Whatever was on the first floor made it to the second floor and so on and so on She never really killed, disinfected and got rid of them.
I know for a fact I got mono not because I was kissing anyone who had it, but because a girl who was dating a boy on my boyfriend’s floor who had mono used and sneezed all over their bathroom and lounge and I touched the stuff she touched and BAM I had mono as did almost the rest of that floor.
I can’t say it enough when you live in an area that is enclosed with hardly any fresh air moving through it, you need to wash your hands to help protect you from germs. I’m not talking about hand washing on an OCD kind of level, but after using the bathroom or touching surfaces such community door knobs, sinks, pay phones, etc that someone may have sneezed on it’s good to give the hands a little soap and water to help increase your chances of not getting sick.
All you need to do is touch something like a doorknob that has mono germs on it, and then rub your eyes or put your hand near your mouth and before you know it you’re coughing and sneezing and sleeping away half a semester of your life.
Which brings me to the next common disease of dorms – the dreaded PINK EYE!! Again, what starts off a simple little cold in someone’s eye that goes untreated can quickly become a shared disease that an entire floor has and can’t get rid of for months because it keeps getting passed around.
Pink eye is highly contagious and can be very costly and dangerous if you get it. A good friend of mine got the pink along with several others. She thought it would clear up on her own and left it untreated. Her corneas dropped because the case got so out of control and she ended up with some long-term vision problems.
Pink eye can also be expensive if you wear makeup because you’ll have to pitch anything that came in contact with your eye (such as shadow, liners and powder and applicators) and possibly foundation and powder (if the sponge touched our eye area or you used a finger to apply the foundation and touched the tube after touching your eye). If you have an eye pencil that can be sharpened don’t think that sharpening way down can prevent a return of the disease – your germs are all over it and can’t be sharpened away.
Now we move on to one of my favorites – scabies (EWWWW!!) I had a good friend who got a case of the scabies while working at a local mental hospital. She was an OT major and had to work there for a semester. Unfortunately she brought home more than life experience with her. Again the big problem was she got so embarrassed about getting scabies that she didn’t tell anyone on our floor.
BIG PROBLEM!! Not only was she sitting on couches and chairs in our lounge; she was using the same toilets and showers as the rest of us. Those are very contagious critters and it wasn’t until several others began to itch that she fessed up about what she had and what they needed to do to get rid of them. A little honesty up front would have saved a lot of itching and anger.
Which leads me to another gross disease that made its way onto our floor via the hall skrank – crabs. While that filmstrip from the 70s said you can’t VD from a doorknob, I’m not sure that you couldn’t catch crabs if someone washed and dried their infected clothes in the dorm washer and dryer. And again, this person was sitting on the same toilet as 11 other girls in her corner.
It’s my true belief that dorms where windows don’t open are just giant Petrie dishes. Once the germs get in they just have nothing else to do but grown and mutate until everyone gets sick. You may not be able to avoid all of the illnesses, but you can help reduce your chances of getting all of them by washing your hands on a regular basis and knowing what your neighbors have.
You don’t need to walk around with latex gloves and Lysol to protect yourself, but just be aware that while you may cover your mouth when you sneeze 15 others may not and have just exposed everyone to whatever they have. If you see someone with a suspect looking eye suggest they have it looked because while they may enjoy the time off from class they get by having pink eye – 30 other kids may not feel the same way.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ned1
|
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: Nancy
Location: in the Barbie aisle
Reviews written: 894
Trusted by: 346 members
About Me:
Off to Basel (1/21) - in search of Swiss Miss Barbie - back (1/26)
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.