At this point, we've basically accepted that moving back onto campus and living in small spaces with tons of roomies means we're bound to get sick pretty quickly at the beginning of fall semester — but let the latest yucky disease circulating Harvard University's campus be a reminder to keep up those healthy habits.
According to the Harvard Crimson, several cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease have been reported on campus — and it's about as gross as it sounds. Symptoms of the virus include a fever and sore throat, which sound about like your average 24-hour bug, until you factor in the mouth sores and skin rashes that also often come along with HFMD.
While it normally affects infants and young children, when you think about it, going to college is basically like swapping germs with everyone in your kindergarten class for the same time, so it makes sense — even if HFMD sounds less than desirable at best.
The bright side? Harvard's Health Services department says that the virus, "ordinarily isn’t debilitating and passes after a few days."
But as always with a new school year, let's just let this be a gentle reminder to wash our hands and take a Clorox wipe or two to the bathrooms we share with roommates every once in a while.
