Last week, junior Darren Strong said he couldn’t get out of bed for several days. Suffering shivers, muscle aches, coughing and shortness of breath, Strong said the flu hit him pretty hard.

“It was not a good weekend,” he said.

Strong is one of innumerable UW-Eau Claire students and staff down with the flu in the last few weeks. The outbreak prompted Student Health Services to issue a campus-wide e-mail Feb. 7, advising infected people to stay home to prevent spreading the virus.

“We were seeing an increase in the number of people coming in with (influenza-like) symptoms,” said Laura Chellman, director of Health Services.

The e-mail identified typical flu symptoms such as high fever, dry cough, sore throat and muscle aches, and advised students to stay home, rest, stay hydrated and treat symptoms with medication such as ibuprofen.

To prevent the continued spread of the virus, the e-mail offered tips such as staying home when sick, covering one’s mouth and nose while coughing and washing one’s hands often.

“It’s sweeping across campus pretty fast,” said junior Brian Mixtacki, one of Strong’s roommates.

Chellman said 13.5 percent of clinic visits last week included influenza-type symptoms, up from 4 percent the previous week. She said the clinic has also been taking many calls from students with the with the rest of campus.”

Even five of the 19 Blugold women’s hockey players contracted the flu last week, said junior Margaret Campbell, a member of the team who had the illness. She said sharing a locker room probably contributed to the team’s sickness, adding that the coach even told her not to come to practice when she was sick.

“(Coach Collins said) ‘if you’re in any way contagious, we don’t want you here,'” Campbell said, adding, “we do our best to prevent it from spreading.”

Junior Sophie Parris said she’s had the flu before, but this time it hit her pretty hard. Just getting out of bed made her dizzy, she said. She also said two of her professors cancelled class because they were sick.

Chellman said missed classes are between the student and the professor and SHS generally does not issue written notes. While the e-mail advised missing classes to minimize spread, students should communicate directly with their professors if they miss class, she said.

Health Services told her not to go to classes when she saw them about her symptoms, Campbell said. Her professors excused her from class, she said, and told her she didn’t even need a note.

Parris agreed, saying her professors told her to stay home when she e-mailed them about her sickness.

While a flu shot won’t eliminate every possible strain, Chellman said it still minimizes the risk of contracting the flu. She said that while Health Services is out of the vaccine, students can call the clinic and they will track it down locally.

Campbell said she didn’t receive a flu shot and won’t in the future, since she said she figures it’s “kind of inevitable” to get sick.

“The body can take care of (the flu) on its own,” she said.

Strong said he had “minimal contact” with his Chancellor’s roommates, to keep them healthy. He tried not to cough around his friends, he said.

The flu isn’t just spread in the dorms, Chellman said. Any public place on-campus such as a classroom, computer lab or social event carries the risk of infection. Being in close quarters with infected people also increases the chance of spreading the flu, she said.

Mixtacki said it was scary to watch his friend fall sick so quickly. Mixtacki said he tried to get Strong what he needed, while at the same time taking precautions so he wouldn’t catch the same illness.

“(But) it’s just a matter of time (before I get sick),” Mixtacki said, adding that he’s been trying to keep public surfaces in his Chancellor’s apartment sanitized to minimize germs.

Chellman said the Wisconsin Division of Public Health asked university health organizations to keep track of flu-like symptoms in their clinics. Statistics are submitted on both a state and national level, she said.

If the number of flu cases continues to rise, Chellman said she would send out another note to the campus.