Students travelling for spring break should monitor any illnesses that arise, Chief Campus Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman said Tuesday in a briefing with campus media. Van Orman said while the human body can handle many illnesses without medical intervention, rash, fever and bloody diarrhea indicate that an illness might require professional evaluation and treatment. Van Orman also reminded students to take precautions to minimize the risk of contracting viruses or diseases while traveling.

“Check reputable travel sources so you understand what the risks are in terms of food, water where you travel, the risks of mosquito-borne illnesses,” Van Orman said. “Really make sure you’re prepared if you’re going to be in situations where you might be engaging in new sexual partners, making sure you’re carrying protection with you. Be aware of the local risks.”

Hantavirus is a virus that spreads from the feces or saliva of infected rodents to humans and can cause flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle ache and abdominal issues, or in serious cases, a dangerous lung condition called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. Between 1993 and 2022, 78 cases of hantavirus were reported in California.

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Van Orman said that while most students were not in danger of contracting hantavirus, students going camping or staying in cabins over spring break should check for mouse or rat droppings and carefully monitor any symptoms they may have.

“Hantavirus is interesting … because it acts very quickly. We see people go from, ‘I feel kind of sick,’ to really severe, life-threatening [symptoms], even death within 24 hours,” Van Orman said. “Rats and mice carry bad things, so beware if you’re somewhere with rats and mice; that’s my advice.”

The National Institutes of Health “All of Us” Research program aims to collect health data from one million participants. The Keck School of Medicine is one of the local sites where people can participate in the study. Participants can take lifestyle surveys, get physical measurements taken and provide access to their electronic health record. Van Orman said the study will aid in an increased understanding of genetics.

“In terms of understanding big population genetics, it’s really important that we do that from a diverse group of people of all ages, backgrounds, making sure that the information we’re collecting that is going to help find genetic markers, potentially lead[ing] to the discovery of other diseases, really reflect[ing] the whole range of the populations,” Van Orman said.

Student Health partnered with Keck to make it easier for University Park Campus students to participate in the study. Instead of traveling to the Health Sciences Campus, there were three dates when students could go to USC Village to provide biomedical samples, with March 11 being the final day. Van Orman said Student Health partnered with Keck to encourage students to think about medical research and their role in the field.

“[The ‘All of Us’ Research program is] a great project that we think advances national and international health goals. We think [partnering with Keck] was a great way to support our Keck researchers, but also to engage students in thinking about, ‘what does some of this research mean? And what does it mean for us to think about participating in it?’” Van Orman said.

A new spending bill proposed by the House of Representatives would decrease funding for the National Institute of Health’s CURES Act from $407 million to $127 million. The CURES Act, designed to fund key innovation products, funds the NIH BRAIN initiative, which has funded past USC research.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan regarding the impact the BRAIN initiatives’ possible defunding could have on USC research, the University wrote it was “closely monitoring possible changes in federal government funding to understand the implications for university and medical research.”