Flu shot available on campus soon to combat winter germs

By Travis Ball
The Collegian

With flu season just around the bend, Fresno State students have the possibility of becoming carriers for sickness, but the Student Health Center hopes to stop the virus in its tracks.

“The flu kind of hits like a freight train,” said Sam Gitchel, the Wellness Services Coordinator at the health center. “It’s the one where you think, ‘oh man, I’m not going anywhere today.’”

According to Lawrence Haugen, the health center’s associate director, an order for the flu vaccine was placed in March. “We’re just in the waiting period. I think we can be confident in saying that we’re going to have the vaccine, it’s just a matter of when.”

The waiting period could be over as soon as early November. Haugen said the vaccine should certainly be here before the end of the semester, and will be comparable with the community price of about $20.

“Flu season usually peaks in mid-winter,” Haugen said. “The big thing is when students go home over break and the holidays and start mixing up all those germs.” He said the health center would begin offering the flu vaccine as soon as it comes in.

The university can be a spreading area for germs, especially in the winter.

“Flu happens more in the winter,” Gitchel said. “I think that is mostly because people tend to be in closed quarters more where the germs spread more easily.” When in public places, germs have a greater chance of spreading. “Any environment where there are concentrations of people, say a classroom where you don’t know how many people have sat in that desk in the last 24 hours or the last 48 hours,” Gitchel said.

Oscar Burgos, an undeclared freshman, said university students are big targets for getting sick because they have a lot of interaction with each other. Burgos, who just got over being sick, said sometimes it’s hard to avoid, especially when you live close to others who are sick.

Hand-to-hand transmission is a popular way that germs travel. So Gitchel said one of the best things a person can do to prevent from getting the flu and other viruses is to wash their hands regularly.

“They’re on doorknobs, chair arms, shaking hands, desks, and I think this bug can live for awhile on surfaces like that,” Gitchel said.

While working for a chiropractor, Carolyn DePiazza learned that some patients had bad side effects from flu vaccines. The junior exercise science major doesn’t plan on getting the immunization this year but she stays healthy other ways. She said along with washing her hands and staying away from people that are sick she tries to exercise and boost her immune system. “For a lot of people I’m not sure it’s an important thing,” DePiazza said about the flu vaccine. “If they have low immunity it’s probably a good idea.”

Gitchel believes there’s a lot of truth in that.

“Usually, especially when the vaccine is in short supply, they really don’t encourage flu vaccinations except for people who are high risk, and that would be people for whom having the flu could complicate another preexisting health condition,” Gitchel said. “For most healthy people it’s not critical that you get it, it really is a personal choice.”

According to Gitchel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s words are well-chosen when they say, “In general, anyone who wants to reduce their chances of getting the flu can get vaccinated.”

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