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Freshers Flu

I'll be starting university in September. I've being hearing the term 'Freshers Flu' and I still don't know what it is!
Someone explain it pleaseeeee

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Reply 1
Chlamydia, pubic lice and occasionally herpes, that's it really. To avoid it, don't sleep around in the first week, remember it's about quality not quantity, anyone who sleeps around in the first week clearly has something.
Okay... I always took it more along the lines of, you're with a load of strangers in a new environment. You are likely to come across germs/bacteria that your body hasn't built a defence against yet and so you get a cold or feel quite ill for a few days. Why else would people suggest you take painkillers, tissues, throat lozenges etc... for when you're initially ill. It won't all help with chlamydia.
(edited 9 years ago)
You're just very very likely to get ill. I had a cold on and off for my whole first year :p:
i thought it was to do with being nervous :s-smilie:
I always thought it was just people who aren't used to alcohol drinking their own body weight, eating crap and not getting any sleep.
ohh alright, Thank you guys for all your repliesss
Reply 7
It's a combination of what most people have said so far: Since you're meeting people from everywhere, there will be a lot of germs that your body has never experienced before, and as such has no defense against. Those germs, plus the quantity of alcohol, crappy food and the lack of sleep lead a lot of freshers to get ill in their first few weeks.
Reply 8
Reply 9
It's a very real thing unfortunately, I'm going into my third year and I got it at the beginning of both first and second years :P
As a few people have said: you'll be coming into contact with hundreds of people from all over the country/world and a lot of people just happen to pick up a cold because they don't have natural immunity. There's not much you can do about it (if you want to make any friends at all) other than eat well and try not to get too close to people.

I didn't get ill until about four weeks into my first year. In second year I got ill about a week before freshers week. In third year I got ill about a week before freshers week (ended up in A&E with a chest infection). Had to spend the entirety of freshers week on antibiotics where I couldn't drink any alcohol.
"Freshers' Flu is the name commonly given to a battery of illnesses contracted by as many as 90% of new students during the first few weeks at a universityin some form; common symptoms include fever, sore throat, severe headache, coughing and general discomfort . The illnesses may or may not include actual flu, and is often simply a bad cold, but is so named simply due to alliteration."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshers%27_Flu
During your first week (or two) of lectures, prepare to hear more coughing than talking from the professor.
Is there anyway of avoiding Freshers Flu, or at least stopping the symptoms get really bad...my sister seemed to be ill for pretty much the whole first semester and I can't think of a bigger way to ruin the start of university :/ I guess getting some sleep occasionally, trying to eat well and to drink less would help?
It's mainly a bad cold, a flu last more than a couple of weeks and is way much worse.
Basically what everyone else said, also the fact you don't sleep for about a week. It was worse at Halloween for me though as I live at home so didn't go out as much at freshers compared to Halloween.
Reply 16
Original post by Only1_deedee
I'll be starting university in September. I've being hearing the term 'Freshers Flu' and I still don't know what it is!
Someone explain it pleaseeeee


It's a cold that you get during/just after freshers week. Be prepared for using a tree's worth of tissue paper in your first year, I had so many of them!
You'll survive. People just hype it up more than it is really, or they have terrible, terrible immune systems. Fruit, veg and sleep. Sorted.
In short since your used to living in your own town and area your used to the germs from your area when you move to uni, you meet people from respectively all over the world, from different cities and they all bring there germs (which they are usually immune to) which your obviously not at this stage and your likely to get ill. Its usually just a cold but I know from September to December I was ill on and off on and off until I got my group of friends. Stock up on your pills freshers flu is horrible and even your lecturers complain about it LOL. Think of how many students they will meet per lecture and which direction all of us will be coughing in
Your best bet is to do like Sheldon Cooper would.

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