Students at the University of Maryland fear mold problems in their dorms may be linked to the death of a freshman who succumbed to the same rare virus that killed 11 New Jersey kids.

Olivia Paregol, 18, was in her first semester at the College Park school when, early in the semester, she developed a cough, which later worsened to pneumonia. She died Sunday at Johns Hopkins Hospital from adenovirus, which causes respiratory problems.

Jessica Thompson told CBS News that she and her roommate discovered mold on their shoes and clothes in their dorm back in August — and that the fungus caused them to fall ill.

“You can’t sleep at night because the pillow is right next to mold and you’re up all night coughing,” Thompson told the outlet. “We got to go home on the weekends and we would be totally fine at home, and we would come back and would be sniffling and coughing and then have headaches.”

After the roommates repeatedly alerted university officials, the pair — along with about 500 other students — were moved to temporary housing while the school worked to clean the dorms, Thompson said.

“They had put in a dehumidifier, and the heat had finally turned on and the mold seemed to go away, but it was a good two-and-a-half months,” she told the outlet.

Olivia’s father, Ian Paregol, also claimed his daughter’s room had mold.

Paregol told CBS his daughter had already suffered from Crohn’s disease and a weakened immune system.

But several weeks into the fall semester, her worsening respiratory issues brought her to the campus health center.

“It didn’t help the illness,” Paregol insisted. “I think that’s a really fair statement. We don’t know that there’s causation, yet, but it didn’t help things.”

There were a total of six adenovirus cases on campus — including Olivia’s — as of Tuesday, the station reported. Campus officials learned of the first case on Nov. 1.

“I want the other kids to make sure they don’t get sick,” Paregol said. “I mean … apparently, there were two kids sick when we came forward, right? That was the 13th. I would’ve liked to have had that information. And now there’s three more kids sick.”

Dr. David McBride, head of the university’s campus health center, told the outlet that while the university acknowledges adenovirus has affected some of its students, they don’t “want to stir up unnecessary angst.”

“What we’ve done is we’ve stepped up our cleaning efforts, we’re on high alert here and we’re working to be very diligent to follow up on cases when students are sick to make sure that they don’t worsen,” he said.

State and local health officials are investigating the outbreak, the university said.

Mold can cause respiratory symptoms, including wheezing and a stuffy nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this fall, 11 children who stayed at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in New Jersey died of adenovirus.