Students urged to get flu shots

Achoo!

It's time to take cover. Flu season is here again.

And it's going to take more than a steady supply of hand sanitizers and mom's homemade chicken soup to stave off this dreaded virus.

"Everyone should have a flu shot," said Susan Pilukaitis, a Richland College nurse. "If [you] go to school, it makes a big difference. If you get the flu, you can miss a week of school. That could affect your semester."

Last year about 20 students took the shot on campus.

"More employees take the shot than do students" said Pilukaitis.

It's unclear why so few students take advantage of the readily available flu-shot program on campus.

"If Richland was offering free shots," said Javier Mata, a second-year student, "I'd definitely get one."

But most of the students who were asked if they'd taken a shot or planned on getting one said they would avoid it at all costs.

Sally Dang, a third-year business major, said she'd never taken one and wouldn't even if it were free.

"If I take the shot," she quipped, "I'll probably get sick."

That's a common misconception.

"The flu shot does not give you the flu," Pilukaitis said. "There are only a few side effects of the flu shot, like cold symptoms, but it's not the flu."

At least one school official, English professor Elizabeth Curry, said there may be another reason why so few students line up for flu shots on campus.

"When you're younger," Curry said, "you think you are indestructible."

The flu is a "contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five to 20 percent of the U.S. population contracts the flu each year; 200,000 people are hospitalized due to flu complications and about 36,000 people die each year.

There are some things students and faculty alike can do  to help prevent the spread of germs, such as washing their hands and covering their mouth when they cough.

However, Pilukaitis said, "The flu shot remains the most effective way to prevent influenza."