Feeling sick? Stay home

USC has advice for certain students planning on attending tonight's game.

Stay home.

A campus-wide alert was issued Saturday morning warning about a suspected "highly contagious gastrointestinal virus." At least 30 students have required medical treatment for the unknown illness that "is not usually serious, but can cause vomiting, diarrhea and stomach-cramping. The sickness usually has an incubation period of 24 to 48 hours, but may be as short as 12 hours."

Anybody who does not feel well is being asked avoid exposure to the sellout crowd. An e-mail from Dr. Lawrence Neinstein, executive director of the campus Health Center, admonished, "We would rather you watch it on television than chance infecting your fellow students." Alerts were also sent to cellphones by text message.

This almost sounds like an elaborate prank (especially because the good Doc's name was misspelled in the e-mail), but USC's Department of Public Safety confirmed it.

For die-hard Trojans, this may be a tough decision to stomach. But if you're not feeling well, there are over 93,000 stomachs rooting for you to make the right decision.

UPDATE: As of 3 p.m. Saturday, the AP is reporting that at least 75 students have come down with this virus. While we still don't know what it is at USC, an outbreak of Norovirus affected about 200 people at Georgetown this week. Several members of the football team were stricken, and the Hoyas had to cancel this week's game. Yeouch.

-- Adam Rose

Comments

[Jen]

Definitely not a prank- four sick kids on one floor so far this morning.

[N.Johnson]

Georgetown University has contracted this as well. It's called the "norovirus." Over 200 people have come down with it so far.

[Bill M]

There is a new way to decontaminate norovirus and many others things...and there is no need to wipe down or clean up..it is all done at the submicron level..check it out at www.zimek.com....homeland security is using this system...USC should check it out...can decontaminate whole buildings and it is nearly a green product and non corrosive