Health Center working to cure campus ills

Dr. Hugh J. Jessop gave a common scenario.\n"I went to the Health Center. They told me what was wrong and gave me a prescription. The next day, my roommate went the Health Center and they told him the exact same thing…Well, bingo, you're sharing the same space."\nAs director of the IU Health Center, Jessop has seen and heard just about everything -- particularly complaints from IU students that the doctors and nurses of the Health Center don't know what they're doing.\nStudents often say the Health Center doctors just diagnose the same three things. Students either have an upper respiratory infection, some kind of bacteria virus, or mono. But Jessop said what students fail to realize is they're being diagnosed the same because they're sharing the same space and air as an infected person, or engaging in similar activity.\n"Think about it. You're at a bar and someone tastes a drink and says 'Ooh, this is good -- try it,'" Jessop said. "Now, if they have some kind of virus, guess who's got it now?"\nJessop explained that the behavior of college students causes these viruses to spread. \n"No one really thinks about it, but washing hands is a really big deal," he said. \nSeveral viruses are spread through normal contact, as well as through saliva.\n"Between the months of November and March, the flu and other viruses are at their peaks because people are staying inside, in close proximity, and travelling for the holidays, which makes the transference of these airborne viruses easier," Jessop said.\nDr. Mark Munroe, a physician with PromptCare, expressed a similar sentiment.\n"February is the heaviest time of the year for influenza," Munroe said. "But this year the flu shot seems to be working, and two of the common medications we prescribe, Tamiflu and Relenza, seem to be very effective."\nBesides understanding what causes one to be susceptible to viruses, Jessop stressed for students to learn the difference between the flu and an ordinary cold or virus. \n"If you have the flu, you are not going to be sitting up here talking to me," he said. "You're going to be talking like a truck hit you, and you're not going anywhere." \nAnother misunderstanding involves the cure for a virus. As difficult as it may be for students to accept, a virus has to run its course. \n"Viruses are not alive," Jessop said. "They cause responses to the body like a runny nose, headache, sore throat or congestion, but these are just responses to this dead virus. The body's got to handle it." \nJessop went on describing a common scenario that arises when students diagnosed with a virus leave the Health Center with no medicine in hand. \n"They go home for the weekend," he said. "Mom and Dad take them to the family doctor, and the student says, 'I went to the Health Center, but they didn't give me any antibiotics.'" \nIf the student came to the Health Center feeling ill Wednesday, went home feeling horrible Friday and got some antibiotics, Jessop said the student would have been better by Sunday anyway. \nBut students think the antibiotics cured them. The problem with antibiotics is that if they are taken for something the body can fight off itself, they ruin the effect the antibiotic can have when the body really needs them. \n"Instead of the body saying 'Wow this is good stuff,' it's saying 'Oh, I've seen this before,'" Jessop said.\nThe antibiotics then lose their potency to fight off other illnesses. \nViruses in the early stages can't always be detected immediately. The doctors and nurses at the Health Center make it a point to tell the students that if their symptoms worsen, they should come back. \nThe IU Health Center is accredited by The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc. \n"If you don't believe we know what we're doing, ask them," Jessop said. "They come here for two days, and it's as if the FBI is here."\nThe Health Center has to meet 415 standards of operation for the center to become board certified. This is a level above licensing -- a process they undergo every five years. Not only that, but each department has its own agency standards to meet, as well. \n"And out of 500 labs in the state of Indiana, our pharmacy lab was awarded highest achievement for 2002," Jessop said.\nOnly four awards are given. \nAfter a patient is seen at the Health Center, physicians immediately pick up the phone, put in their code and the student's code and dictate everything they saw and heard. Within 24 hours, the dictation is type-written and placed in the student's file. \nSophomore Sarah Ferguson paid a visit to the Health Center last week, and while she found a long wait, she said the service was reliable.\nMany ambulatory health care organizations don't seek accreditation, and even fewer receive favorable decisions from the on-site survey, Jessop said. \n"We want to be able to say that we're giving our students the best treatment," Jessop said. "After 13 years, I'll defend this health center against anybody"