For Elizabeth Alvarez, it all started two weeks ago with a cough.
But when she woke up the next morning, she was suffering from much more.
“I had a headache, my eyes were hurting, and my chest would hurt from coughing so much,” Alvarez said.
By the time she finally made the trip to the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, her list of growing ailments had expanded.
“I was really, really cold. I felt like nothing could keep me warm,” she added.
Once at the Ashe Center, the diagnosis was quick and easy. Elizabeth had H1N1: the swine flu.
The second-year physical science student is just one of a growing population of students who have fallen ill to a flu that President Barack Obama has declared a national emergency.
And as vaccine shortages and a growing number of flu-related deaths continue to make headline news, what were once speculations of a pandemic have become all too close a reality for many on campus.
While no distinctions are made between the common flu and the swine flu at the Ashe Center, according to UCLA’s H1N1 Web site, 310 students have sought treatment from the center for flu-like symptoms since August 30.
“That’s a lot of people,” said Reza Ordoubadi, a third-year economics student whose own brother caught H1N1 during the summer.
“He was very sick,” Ordoubadi added. “He had a mean cough that didn’t pass until a month later.”
Yet the attitude toward the spread of the swine flu on campus is quite calm.
“I’m not scared to walk to class. I’m not scared of running into one of those 310 people,” Ordoubadi said.
For Alvarez, she was one of those 310.
Her symptoms were a textbook example of the spreading flu.
Adding to her already long list of ailments were a fever, body aches and fatigue.
“I was always really tired, and I felt really weak,” Alvarez said. “I couldn’t lift things and I couldn’t move.”
Ordered to her room, Elizabeth left the Ashe Center with no medical prescriptions, apart from the recommendation of Tylenol for the fever, plenty of fluids and lots of sleep, she said.
“For three days I had to be basically quarantined in my room,” Alvarez continued. “I had to wear a mask in my room when my roommates were around.”
But for Alvarez, relief came quickly.
“It only lasted for two days. On Tuesday, I had a fever but the next morning, it was gone,” she explained.” Once those two days were over, it was like nothing. I think the media blows it way out of proportion.”