For some students, Thanksgiving Break can't come soon enough. Though most students are worn out by looming deadlines, an unusually high number of students are struggling with the added burden of illness.

Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes estimated that 10 to 13 students currently have mono, compared with the typical seven to 10 who contract the virus over the course of a normal year.

Despite the substantial increase, Hayes does not see a cause for alarm.

"I would not categorize the situation as an outbreak because [mono] comes in clusters; but, this is a slightly bigger case," she said.

Hayes said that she could only guess why there has been such an increase in cases this year in particular.

"It is to be expected in the college population, to see that cluster that we might now see out in the community," she said.

Hayes said that the protocol regarding students with mono depends on the specific situation of the student.

"If symptoms and the clinical picture look like mono, we usually test them," she said.

She added that if the blood test is positive, "we bring them back and talk to them about mono."

Hayes cautioned against consuming alcohol while infected with mono because the disease enlarges the liver. No matter the severity of the case, "we do pull [students] from any contact activities" in order to prevent the spleen from rupturing.

As for academic concerns, Hayes said that "it depends if they're sick enough to be out of school or not" and that most of those decisions are left to the deans.

Student cases have ranged drastically in severity. Some students seen by Dudley Coe have only been "moderately sick," Hayes said, and have been able "to attend class but nothing else." Others have not been so lucky.

Edward Gottfried '11 suspected something was wrong when his neck swelled up two weeks ago like "one of Jafar's guards in Aladdin," he said. It was not until a full week later, when he was in Greek class, that he knew he must have mono.

"I was translating aloud and got to the end of a sentence and realized I had no idea what I had said in the previous minute and a half. That sort of lack of cognitive function is somewhat unique, and led me to believe that something was seriously wrong with me," he said.

Gottfried spent two nights at Parkview Hospital. Hayes said that "people who get very sick get put in the hospital" so that they can get IV fluids and the medication they need to combat the swelling of the tonsils.

Gottfried is now at home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he will remain until the end of Thanksgiving Break.

"The kind folks over at Dudley Coe thought that it wasn't likely I'd be able to go to class between now and then, so I was more than happy to come back home," he said.

He praised the heath center staff for their quick diagnosis and "help on the road to recovery," but was frustrated by the limited weekend hours and one staff member's attempt to have him ingest pills when he was physically unable.

Flu season

As the temperature begins falling below freezing, an increasing number of Bowdoin students are making appointments at Dudley Coe Health Center. November is the beginning of flu season, and according to Hayes, "there is always an increase in appointments from fall break to Thanksgiving."

So far, Dudley Coe has seen only one student with the flu.

"Usually, we see the flu after Thanksgiving and in January," Hayes said, citing December and January as the months when the health center plays its biggest role on campus.

These busy periods generally include the days subsequent to the students' return from winter or spring break. Hayes said that many students "bring things back from home after breaks."

Once infected students resettle on campus, the foreign diseases start to spread. This is a hardly a surprise in the college environment where students live in such close proximity.

Hayes advised that students get flu shots, which will be available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, free of charge, at Dudley Coe Health Center.

Hayes estimated that it is the fifth flu shot clinic that Dudley Coe has sponsored.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), last season was one of only three seasons in the past 20 years during which there was low cross-reaction between the viruses in the vaccine and the predominating circulating viruses. This failure, along with pharmaceutical companies' struggle in recent years to produce a sufficient amount of flu vaccine, may have deterred some from considering vaccination.

Hayes anticipates this year's vaccine to have "really good coverage" and said that there is no shortage expected. She explained that those with the flu vaccine are 60 percent more likely to be protected against the flu than those without it. She added that those who have received the vaccine and still contract the flu "will end up less sick."

Hayes estimated that 600 students received the shot last year, a number she cited as considerably larger than that of Bowdoin's peer schools.

"I think one of the reasons we get such a large number [vaccinated] is because we try to make it as easy as possible for students," she said.