It’s almost flu season, luckily the UNB Student Health Centre and their Student Nurses have you covered.
They will be holding a flu shot clinic on the St. Thomas University campus on Friday Oct. 30 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the J.B. O’Keefe Fitness Centre. The cost will be $15 for students, $25 for the general public, and no appointment is needed.
The flu shot is generally advised for children, the elderly and those with compromised immunity. However student nurse Darian Brown said this should not be interpreted as saying students shouldn’t get the vaccine.
“What we want students to know is that they can pass it on as carriers. So anybody that has a compromised immunity, and there’s people who if they have chronic health issues, then that’s an issue too,” said Brown. “There’s this idea around herd immunity, if a lot of people are immunized around one person who might be elderly or a child then you’re vicariously protecting them.”
For students with compromised immunity the flu shot is a no brainer. However no one is immune from getting the flu and there are some aspects of student life that may make the risk of getting the flu higher.
“If you’re looking at students [they] are often faced with a high amount of stress. [That’s] because of just the difficulties that come with being a university student,” said Brown. “You’re in class all the time too. You’re around other people. So you are more susceptible [to] the flu.”
Brown said students will have to wait 20 minutes after the shot to make sure there isn’t a reaction, which is rare. Students may also be worried that the flu shot may make them sick. Brown said this isn’t a problem.
“It’s a common myth that you get the flu after getting the flu shot…If you get the flu after the flu shot it’s more or less a coincidence that you’ve already been exposed,” said Brown. “The flu vaccine has a dead virus in it.”
If you do get the flu chances are you will recover with no long term effects, but that doesn’t mean you won’t feel something.
“Symptoms often are a sudden high fever, cough, muscle aches, chills, a loss of appetite, sore throat. There’s also nausea, vomiting and diarrhea but those three are most common with children,” said Brown. “The approximate time they’ll have the flu is seven to 10 days.”
Now all you have to do is actually make it to the clinic without getting the flu first, Brown has some suggestions.
“There’s a couple things you can do. It’s mostly just general precautions. So looking at your hand washing,” said Brown. “If you’re in a coffee shop, and you keep touching things then you would definitely want to make sure hand washing is your number one priority.”
Brown also suggests coughing into your sleeve, and staying home if you are sick.
