Vaccine best to stop flu, SRU health director says
SLIPPERY ROCK — We've all heard the warnings: “Stay home if you're sick,” “Cover your mouth when you cough and your nose when you sneeze,” “Wash your hands” and “Get plenty of rest.”
And while all that remains good advice, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those tips often arrive after a person has caught some sort of “bug.”
Kris Benkeser, Slippery Rock University's director of student health and wellness, champions what she terms “the single best way to prevent seasonal flu” — get a flu shot.
“For the uninitiated, the down and dirty on the flu is this: it's a respiratory spread illness; it's highly transmittable; and it is easily preventable with a flu shot,” said Benkeser. “I don't know why anyone with an I.Q. higher than a squirrel wouldn't get a flu shot. Let's be real, the flu is icky ... it makes you feel like you've been run over by a truck and will lay you out for four to five days. It is absolutely horrible.
“If you're a student and you get the flu, at a minimum, you're probably missing a week of class, which will put you far behind where the rest of class is in terms of learning along with being straddled with this horrible crud, is not good. On top of that, when you have the flu, you are actively shedding the flu virus for 24-48 hours before you feel sick, so your friends can thank you for that later as well.”
And, with a campus that plays host to nearly 9,000 students in addition to hundreds of staff and faculty, the opportunity to see the flu spread in exponential terms isn't hard to imagine.
While flu shots are readily available to all SRU students through the Student Health Center, Giant Eagle pharmacists will be on campus to administer flu shots to University employees from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Oct. 17 at the Aebersold Recreation Center, 14 Maltby Drive.
The vaccine is free for employees, spouses and domestic partners with a university insurance plan. No registration is required, and participants must present their insurance card. Employees with other non-university insurance plans are welcome, but may be subject to co-pays or co-insurance determined by your particular plan.
But what of the doubters who say flu shots don't work?
Benkeser said, “The shot works great. It protects you because it introduces the dead flu virus into your body that your immune system can say, 'Hey wait ... I think I've seen this before ... I know what to do — kill this thing before it makes my person extremely ill.'”
Another oft heard reason for not getting a flu shot according to Benkeser is that “it makes (me) sick.”
“That is absolutely impossible,” she said. “It's dead virus inside the shot. What happens is flu vaccine triggers your immune system to recognize and attack if it sees the virus again. Yes, there are some that may feel a little rundown or have a runny nose after receiving the shot but that's not the shot making you ill. That's your immune system being active. If you feel a little under the weather after getting a flu shot, that's a good thing. It means your system is responding to the vaccine.”
To better help spread the word among students about getting a flu shot, SRU's HOPE (Healthy Outreach through Peer Education) Peer Educators, who strive to promote student wellness by offering comprehensive health education and advocating for a campus and local community that support student well-being, have launched a social media campaign on their Facebook (HOPEPeerEducators) page and Twitter (@SRUPeers) feed.
“(HOPE Peer Educators) will be campaigning hard to spread the word about getting a flu shot and thought coming up with a hashtag and creating a social media contest might help shed some additional light on the efforts,” said Vanessa Vought, SHS health educator.
To that end, when students get a flu shot at the Student Health Center, they will receive a Band-Aid featuring characters from the “Star Wars,” “Finding Dory” or “Despicable Me” movies.
After students get a flu shot, we're asking them to post a selfie showing off their Band-Aid using #SRUfightstheflu or #FluFighters, which will accomplish two things; one, help spread the word among their peers about flu shots; and two, enter them into our contest to win a variety of prizes,” Vought said.
