Staying Healthy

Austin Bennett threw up, again. This time all over the kitchen floor. The remains of his last few few meals splattered across the red tiled floor, in a disgusting arrangement of colours. It was the seventh of september almost three weeks after school had started again for Mr. Bennett, who goes to UWCSEA East. And it’s no coincidence that he was sick at the start of the new school year, right after the summer holidays. During the first few weeks back at school colds, viruses and other bugs spread through the school like wildfire. It gets almost impossible to walk around the school without hearing someone cough, sniff or sneeze. But why is it that so many people get sick during the first few weeks of school compared to the rest of the year?

A source working as a nurse in the UWCSEA East campus helped to clarify why. “At the start of the year there are unequivocally more illnesses that get passed around than the rest of the year. We also find that lots of students get sick at the end of the year because everyone is rundown and exhausted after the busy school year.” She explained, when asked why people would be sick after having a long holiday, she went on to describe that “It’s because over the summer everyone goes to lots of different countries, they eat different foods, meet and interact with lots of new people and go on airplanes and trains, which are all perfect opportunities for bugs and viruses to spread. When all the students come back to school and are around each other for over seven hours a day, everything they may have picked up over the summer is spread to the other students around them.”

According to a health website called www.webmd.com airaplanes, trains and other forms of public transport are one of the most common places that infections and virases are spread. This explains why so many students get sick from traveling lots during their holidays.