Any college student knows close contact isn’t really optional.
When you’re sleeping inches away from a roommate and sharing bathrooms, showers, desks and dining spaces, germs are bound to spread. Indeed, common viruses (such as upper respiratory infections) and other viruses (such as mononucleosis and meningitis) tend to flourish on college campuses.
While most of these illnesses aren’t life-threatening, they cause students to be miserable and miss school.
“College is such a great experience that you don’t want it to be marred by that one time you got mono or that one strep infection that landed you in the hospital,” says Isabel Valdez, a physician assistant and associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “You can make it the best time of your life by taking precautions that don’t interrupt your days in college with illnesses that we can prevent.”
Here are 10 strategies to prevent getting sick in college.
1. Stay up to date on your vaccines.
You can protect yourself from getting sick by getting vaccinated to train your immune system to fight off various diseases.
While each school has their own immunization requirements based on the institution and state, you can get optimal protection by staying up to date with your recommended vaccines and immunizations, especially the COVID-19 vaccine and flu shots.
“I primarily recommend those two because once you get the flu or COVID, you may be out for a week or two — just feeling under the weather,” Valdez says. “That’s a lot of time to miss from school, classes and even tests.”
2. Get plenty of rest.
One of the things college students often forget to do when they’re in school is sleep — whether it’s because they’re staying up late studying, finishing their projects or going out to social events.
But it’s important to get at least seven hours of sleep to keep your immune system functioning properly.
“Sleep is restorative in so many ways,” Valdez says. “It restores your immunity. It restores your energy. But if you’re functioning with low immunity and no energy, you are a magnet for infection.”
Not getting enough sleep weakens your immune system, which lowers your ability to fight infection. When you get good-quality sleep, your body produces cytokines, a type of protein that controls inflammation and helps immune cells communicate with each other. However, when you’re staying up late and not getting enough sleep, your immune system is unable to produce enough cytokines to fight off various bugs that can put you under the weather.
“Sleeping too little really reduces that immune battery to fight infections,” Valdez says. “You want to have a fully recharged immune battery.”
3. Don’t wash your dishes in the bathroom.
There’s often limited space in dorm rooms, especially when you’re looking for a sink. But because bathroom surfaces get contaminated quickly and easily, don’t bring food, dishes or eating utensils in there. It’s simply unhygienic.
Doing so puts you at risk for food poisoning from pathogens, such as E. coli, salmonella and norovirus, a highly infectious virus that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea.
Instead, practice proper food safety by handling, storing and washing anything you eat — and anything you eat on or with — in the kitchen.
4. Shower and disinfect surfaces after sweating.
Anywhere that has a lot of sweat (like the gym, locker rooms and saunas) and contact sports (like football and wrestling) are breeding grounds for staphylococcus infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that tends to enter the body through scrapes or cuts on the skin.
Many staph infections on the skin appear as red, swollen or painful bumps or irritated skin. They are often mild and easy to treat with antibiotics. However, because MRSA is resistant to many common antibiotics, these infections are harder to treat and can cause severe complications, including pneumonia, sepsis and even death — if left untreated.
“Don’t play with it, don’t ignore it and have it inspected,” says Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.
To avoid those nasty infections, be sure to shower after every workout or practice, especially when there’s skin-to-skin contact, and don’t share towels — doing so is a prime way the infection spreads.
Use a towel and disinfectant spray to clean any machine you’ve used, and if the treadmill looks suspect — with remnants of sweat — wipe it off before you begin too. If you hit the water fountain post-workout, don’t let your lips touch the nozzle.
5. Protect your feet.
There are plenty of ways you can get sick from bugs you pick up with your feet. Walking around barefoot increases your risk of fungal infections (such as athlete’s foot), plantar warts and — in worst cases — MRSA, especially if you have any cuts or broken skin on your feet.
To avoid contracting any diseases with your feet, make sure to wear sandals, flip-flops or slippers in public spaces, like pools, dorm showers and locker rooms. Drying between your toes after you shower — or swim — will also help ward off these infections.
6. Don’t share glasses, water bottles or utensils.
Mononucleosis is often referred to as the kissing disease, but this viral infection can also easily spread from taking a sip of someone else’s drink or sharing eating utensils.
“We all think about getting mono from our partners,” Valdez says, “but it’s also something that we can transmit by sharing food or drink with folks around us.”
Common mono symptoms include:
— Fever
— Swollen lymph nodes
— Fatigue
While there is no cure or vaccine for mono, the infection typically resolves on its own. Symptoms can be managed with rest, fluids and over-the-counter products — such as Tylenol, Advil or Aleve — to relieve pain.
To protect yourself from mono and other illnesses — like strep throat, COVID-19 and the flu — that spread through respiratory droplets, avoid kissing and sharing food or drinks with people who are infected.
“Any time you’ve got a scratchy, sore throat that you never normally do, you start having fevers or you start feeling nauseous out of nowhere, those are the three cardinal symptoms that I share with my patients that your body is asking for help,” Valdez says. “Going to your student clinic is a good idea.”
7. Avoided crowded areas — and smokers
It’s almost impossible to avoid being in close quarters with other people when you’re in college, but being in crowded areas — whether it be in the dorms, social events or packed classrooms — is how you can get bacterial meningitis, a condition that causes inflammation of the membranes in your brain and spinal cord.
Bacterial meningitis is spread through close contact with infected people, specifically through nose and throat secretions. Crowded living conditions and shoulder-rubbing places like bars increase your risk of infection.
“If you’re standing within a foot or two of people, laughing and singing, that close contact will promote the spread of the bug,” Schaffner says.
Tobacco smoke can carry meningitis-causing bacteria, so it’s best to avoid secondhand smoke. If you’re a smoker, you can reduce your risk of bacterial meningitis by quitting smoking.
8. Keep your distance from sick friends.
If one of your friends starts coughing or sneezing, it’s best to cancel any plans to see them until they get well. However, if that person happens to be your roommate, it’s nearly impossible to avoid them.
“Brace yourself because, unfortunately, it’s really difficult to not catch those bugs from other people that are close to you,” Valdez says.
If someone is sick in the household, wash your hands regularly, disinfect surfaces and wear a mask to give yourself an extra barrier.
9. Don’t let love — or lust — make you reckless.
There’s no way to tell for sure if someone has a sexually transmitted disease, and often, the infections are asymptomatic. That means you should always practice safe sex and use protection.
“Barrier protection with condoms is the best way to protect yourself from (sexually transmitted infections),” Valdez says. “Before you have intercourse with other folks, just being mindful of yourself and getting checked at your clinic is super important.”
And remember, the more sexual partners you have, the greater your risk of infection.
10. Keep your hands clean.
Germs are often spread through high-touch surfaces, such as door handles, library books, computer keyboards, elevator buttons and classroom desks and chairs.
To avoid these germs from getting you sick, be sure to wash your hands regularly and keep an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in your bag for when you’re on the go.
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How College Students Can Avoid Getting Sick originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 10/06/25: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
