Three more University of Maryland students have reported they’ve been diagnosed with adenovirus since it resulted in a student’s death last week, according to a campuswide email sent Monday evening.
Freshman criminology and criminal justice major Olivia Paregol died Nov. 18 from pneumonia after contracting adenovirus, and the university announced last week that at least five other students were diagnosed with the virus since Nov. 1.
At least one of the samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing was adenovirus 7, a more serious strain.
[Read more: “A light wherever she went”: Olivia Paregol remembered for her fun-loving nature]
Paregol’s father, Ian Paregol, expressed concern that the mold in her dorm room in Elkton Hall — which was hit hard in a campuswide mold outbreak — could have been a factor in her death.
In the email, University Health Center director David McBride wrote that adenovirus can place people more at risk for contracting viral infections, but restated that “it appears that there is no consistent connection” between mold exposure and adenovirus at this university.
“[T]he cases of Adenovirus-associated illness on campus have been seen both in students living on and off campus and among students in residence halls affected by mold and residence halls not affected,” he wrote, echoing the health center’s adenovirus FAQs.
Additionally, McBride wrote that none of the new cases required hospitalization.
He stressed that, though there is no vaccine for the virus, students can take precautions — such as washing their hands, getting a flu shot and staying home from class when ill — to prevent further spread of the virus.
