School may have just begun, but three students are already home again after coming down with suspected cases of chickenpox. Though perhaps normally a disease more often associated with preschool-age students than preprofessional-age students, Student Health Services and Counseling Director Deborah Scheff said that communal living in college is what makes it so easy for highly contagious diseases, such as the chickenpox, to spread.

It’s not as uncommon as it may first seem-she reported seeing cases of chickenpox 17 years ago too when she first started working at Saint Louis University.

In the meantime, the infected students have gone home in order to avoid spreading the disease to others. The three cases of chickenpox were enough to send out a precautionary e-mail to the student body on Aug. 28, but Scheff said the cases were largely isolated and that it shouldn’t be a cause for alarm.

As the chickenpox vaccine wasn’t made available to the public until 1995 and most students at SLU were born in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it’s possible that there are some who have neither had the disease in the past nor had the vaccine. It is these students who should be on the lookout the most for any symptoms.

Students who have had the disease or received the vaccine “should be okay,” Scheff said, though if any students notice any lesions, they should get themselves checked out.

The infected students will resume life as usual on campus as soon as they get better. Scheff said.

Students with any concerns can reach Health Services at (314) 977-2323.