U-of-I students get advice about not going wild on Spring Break

College students who plan to go wild on Spring Break are being warned to try and contain themselves. The University of Iowa’s offering a travel clinic where Caribbean beach-bound students can get advice about things like water safety, food safety, sunburn, motor vehicle use and alcohol abuse. Clinic nurse Gayle Nelson says all of that great advice is ignored by most. “The vast majority of the students just pretty much take off and hope to have a good time and we hope they come back in one piece and healthy.” But many won’t. Nelson says many students who are on vacation alone for the first time will cut loose. There’s the risk of not using good judgment when they’re using a lot of alcohol which, Nelson says, can result in car crashes, sexually-transmitted diseases and “who knows what?” She says there’s traditionally a big uptick in student health admissions the week -after- Spring Break, for everything from common colds and the flu to S-T-Ds. She says they see “a fair number” of sexually transmitted diseases after spring break, and they try and treat the students so they don’t fall behind in class. Nelson says some students tend “to burn the candle at both ends and in the middle,” and find themselves in sad shape after a week of poor sleep, excessive drinking and eating questionable food in a strange locale. The lucky ones, she says, may just end up with a bad sunburn or diarrhea. Others, may not come home at all.