Washington University’s Student Health and Counseling Services will make influenza vaccines available to all interested students this year after a previous flu season spent combating a national flu shot shortage.
Last flu season, Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) was unable to offer vaccine shots until November after receiving a defective shipment from one of the nation’s two major vaccine providers.
The shots administered at SHCS could only be obtained through access supplies at other universities.
“What happened was we have a relationship with the folks at the Stanford Health Service over in California and they had received more vaccine than they needed, so they had some extra doses that we were able to get. I think that we ended up getting either 50 or 100 doses,” said Alan Glass, the director of SHCS.
While last year’s shortage left SHCH scrambling, Glass foresees a different situation this year.
“There’s always some small risk that something could be figured out at some point, but we don’t have any indication that there’s anything like that this year,” said Glass. “I would certainly be comfortable, the CDC [Center for Disease Control] is comfortable, that the vaccine supply this year is safe.”
Every winter, anywhere from five to twenty percent of the United States population gets the flu.
To protect students from the flu symptoms of fever, muscle aches and nausea, SHCS is offering several walk-in clinics beginning tomorrow, Nov. 1, and running through Thursday before starting again on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. The fee for a shot is $10.
“Our order that we initially put in was 1,000 which is consistent with the number we’ve needed other years,” said Glass.
High-risk individuals with underlying chronic conditions were administered the vaccine prior to Oct. 24, a common precaution issued by the CDC in case the supply runs out early. Those would be mostly people with asthma and diabetes.
“There’s a fair number of diabetic students on campus and a fairly significant number of students who have asthma,” said Glass.
Last year’s flu season only infected a small percentage of students on campus and many with increased risk for infection managed to find vaccinations elsewhere at off campus locations.
According to Glass, only a small percentage of vaccination recipients will experience side effects, including soreness or redness around the site.
“There are certainly a few individuals who could have not the real flu, but flu-like symptoms, a day or two after receiving the vaccine, but quite honestly, that’s a very small number of people,” Glass explained.
The severity of each flu season, which can begin as early as October and continue as late as May, depends on the virulence of the virus strain in addition to other factors, such as travel patterns of infected individuals.
Students can protect themselves by sneezing into their arms, as opposed to their hands, and washing their hands regularly to prevent the spread of germs.
Freshman Andrew Pazandak plans to get the vaccine. “I’ll end up getting it just because I’ve always gotten it in the past. My parents are pretty big about vaccines,” he said.
Kelly Gelpi, a sophomore, disagreed. “I’ve never gotten the vaccine, I just never had a reason to get it,” she said, saying that she usually doesn’t get sick, and even when she does, it’s usually not that bad.
The respiratory illness, which spreads through fluids expelled through coughing and sneezing, can infect others one day before symptoms develop, and up to five days after the person has realized he or she is sick.
“If folks come in fairly soon after the development of symptoms, usually within 24 to 48 hours, there are certain antiviral medications that you can put people on that decrease the length and the severity of the flu illness,” said Glass.
He noted that the flu could become an academic obstacle, adding that, “If a person actually gets flu or influenza, the time course on that is that the person can be severely sick for seven to ten days.
“You think about that happening in February, which is usually when it hits, [and it] can be a very big issue related to academics and class attendance.”