Jake Carter said he doesn’t know how he caught it.
But the Ottawa University senior did catch it – a dangerous form of influenza, his doctors told him.
“I just thought I had the flu,” Carter, who is from Overbrook, said. “I went to the doctor and he told me that I had H1N1.”
Carter contracted the virus, often referred to as the swine flu, after starting classes this past week, where he started feeling flu-like symptoms.
“It’s pretty similar,” he said. “The body aches were worse.”
University officials confirmed Monday that a student had contracted the virus and was sent home to recover. The student lives off campus and is doing “fine” Karen Ohnesorge, dean of instruction at the college, said in an e-mail to the college community.
The case does not appear to have been reported to the Franklin County Health Department.
Midge Ransom, director of the health department, said previously that the state has not confirmed any H1N1 cases in Franklin County. In the state of Kansas, however, there have been more than 340 confirmed cases.
Ransom added that just because no cases have been confirmed in Franklin County, does not necessarily mean that they don’t exist.
In order to help prevent the spread of the virus at a local level, Ohnesorge said the university is doing its best to keep the virus contained and allow students the time to recover if they feel ill.
“The college will encourage students who have flu symptoms to stay home,” she said in an e-mail. “Faculty will need to adjust attendance policies to accommodate absences.”
Carter said he has not had difficulty keeping up with his classes because his basketball coach has helped him communicate with teachers.
“They’ve been pretty helpful,” Carter said.
Carter added that he was planning to return to school by the end of the week. His doctor told him that he no longer would be contagious 48 hours after his fever broke.
“I have a bit of a cough,” he said about why he hasn’t returned to school yet. “My mom kind of suspected that I had it. They pretty much left me in the basement, and I kind of just let the medicine do the work.”
Carter said he had heard about the swine flu but never expected that he would contract it.
“I heard it was going around Lawrence,” he said. “But I never figured that it would happen to me. I just thought I had the regular flu.”