After a week of sun, beer and hooking up, several students returned from the ASG Spring Break trip to Acapulco coughing and sneezing their way into Searle Health Center.
About 200 Northwestern students traveled to Mexico with Student Travel Services last week on the Associated Student Government-sponsored trip. Though many returned sick and owed the tour company an extra $30 because of recently raised fuel prices, they said they had no regrets.
“I’d do it all over again in a second — I’d even do it sick,” said Erin Moore, a Speech sophomore.
Mark Gardner, director of student health services, said an overwhelming majority of the 165-plus students who visited the health center Monday were spring breakers.
Students who have too much fun in the sun during Spring Break are vulnerable to illness — especially respiratory infections — because of sleep deprivation, excess amounts of alcohol and skipping meals, Gardner said.
“A lot of them push the envelope a bit with their body and this is their body pushing back,” he said.
Most students have been diagnosed with respiratory infections, but others came in with the stomach flu, rashes and sunburns, Gardner said.
Moore said she first went to Searle on Monday but was told to come back later in the week if she felt worse. She said she spent nearly two hours in Searle on Thursday morning and was diagnosed with bronchitis.
“I just think we wore our bodies out,” Moore said. “All it took was one person to get sick and then we all got it.”
Adam Humann, ASG student services vice president, who also returned sick from Acapulco, said he agrees: One person got sick and infected everyone else.
The bunch included Jaime Morgenstern, a Speech senior, who came back from Acapulco with a sinus infection and found many other travel companions at Searle suffering from similar ailments.
“They told me the wait was going to be long because the whole Spring Break trip was sick and to come back if it wasn’t an emergency,” said Morgenstern, who waited to see a doctor for three hours Monday.
Gardner said on a busy day — and the days following Spring Break usually are busy — the wait can be as long as an hour and a half. He also said students can make an appointment to come back another day.
