As H1N1 advances on campus, are drinking games to blame?

Submitted by Justin Ellis on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 13:58

We know a few things about H1N1, particularly that the elderly, kids and people with underlying medical conditions are at risk.

But what about college students?

Just today the University of Maine announced it's first confirmed case of the illness, joining Bowdoin College and Bates College as part of Maine's Swine Flu campus tour.

Bates has been the hardest hit, resorting to the creation of "isolation houses" for the sick or those showing symptoms.

Is it possible college students enjoy risks for H1N1 that others don't? Could it be, perhaps drinking games? Officials at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seem to think so, drawing a link between beer pong and swine flu.

Officials at RPI said they were able to link cases of H1N1 to beer pong and other partying following a football game.

If you think back to your college experience, and consider how H1N1 is spread, it may not be such a crazy proposition. And if that's the case, are there other college activities that should be on a "ban list?"

Maybe Tufts University was on to something when it banned students from getting frisky while their roommate is in the room.

SOUND OFF: What else should be banned from campus during the H1N1 menace?

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about Justin and this blog

Justin is a former newspaper intern and has the scar tissue to prove it. Justin has been a staff writer for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram since 2003, and in 2004 began writing a weekly column in the Monday Magazine.

If he had to pick a label, the column would fall under "youth culture," covering everything from high school dance etiquette, dealing with college debt, the resurgence of Roller Derby and Portland's one-of-a-kind music scene. This of course has not stopped him from answering letters to Santa Claus or writing about his experience riding shotgun in a drift car.

Justin is an export from the Midwest. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and is originally from Minnesota. He enjoys bacon, cheap beer, redheads, Burt Reynolds jokes and wondering what the oundtrack to his life would sound like.

When he grows up he wants to be an international art thief. Or Captain America.

Until then he'll be bringing you dispatches about "the young people" and what they do.

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