SHS Podcast: Influenza – Student Health Services
[Narrator Voice #1]: Howdy and welcome to the TAMUhealth podcast. Conversations about health as it relates to the Texas A&M student. Brought to you by Student Health Services. You can find us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), our handle is @TAMUhealth, and visit our website at shs.tamu.edu. Thanks for tuning in.
[Female Voice #1]: Howdy Ags, this is Dr. Skaggs from the Student Health Services (Beutel).
[Female Voice #2]:And I’m Megan Cullers. I’m a Nurse Practitioner with Student Health Services.
[Female Voice #1]: Today we are here to talk about the flu, the flu shot, how to prevent the flu, and how to treat the flu.
[Female Voice #2]: We are coming up on the flu season. The flu is most prominent between Octoberuntil February, but it can last all the way until May.
[Female Voice #1]: So, Megan, tell us how we prevent the flu.
[Female Voice #2]: Well, Dr. Skaggs, we can prevent the flu in a variety of ways. The way I recommend the most is by getting your flu shot early in flu season. In fact, we have a flu campaign coming up on October 4 through October 5 where we are giving away 4,000 free flu shots.
Another way to prevent the flu is by washing your hands and taking preventative actions to stop the spread of germs. So those are some way we can prevent ourselves from getting the flu. Dr. Skaggs, what are some signs and symptoms of the flu?
[Female Voice #1]: So, one of the signs and symptoms is fever, chills, aching, cough and sore throat. We hardly ever see any nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea with the flu. We almost always see a fever.
[Female Voice #2]: Flu is a virus.
[Female Voice #1]: It’s a virus, not a bacteria, so you can’t give antibiotics for it. But, there can be some options as far as treatment.
Ok, so Megan, say we wake up one day and all of a sudden we’ve got a terrible fever, sore throat, a cough, runny nose, and we feel like we've been hit by a truck. What should we do?
[Female Voice #2]: Oh man, that sounds awful. But if you wake up and that’s going on, you should definitely make an appointment with Student Health Services, either online, calling in, or walking in. But we really recommend an online appointment or calling, that way you don’t have to wait. So whenever you go to see your provider at Student Health Services, you can ask for a flu test. The flu test here is a PCR test, we do that by swabbing the inside of your nose and testing for the flu. So if your flu test comes back positive, you have a couple of different options. One of those options is to treat your symptoms, that’s like taking things to control your fever, to control your runny nose and your congestion.
[Female Voice #1]: For symptom relief, what would you suggest?
[Female Voice #2]: I would suggest getting lots and lots of rest and lots and lots of fluids. Whenever our body has a fever, a lot of times we burn off some of that extra fluid, so it’s important to stay hydrated with things like water. I would also recommend symptom relief medications. You can contact your pharmacist or your healthcare provider for suggestions about medications that would work best for you.
Also, if you’re diagnosed with the flu, within the first 48 hours of getting symptoms, you have the option to start an anti-viral medication. The antiviral medication is one that you take twice a day for five days.
[Female Voice #1]: Ok, Megan, so what’s the benefit of taking that anti-viral medication?
[Female Voice #2]:So we really see the most benefit from taking the anti-viral medication in the young patients, older patients, and those patients with other chronic conditions. It helps them from getting complications from the flu, like pneumonia. Other healthy college aged patients without chronic conditions, it can also help decrease the length of your flu symptoms by about a day.
[Female Voice #1]:Definitely the best treatment though is prevention. So again, how do we prevent ourselves and others from getting the flu?
[Female Voice #2]:So the flu is spread from person to person. So, if you are in contact with somebody with the flu, the droplets from the flu, so essentially from somebody’s spit, or sneeze, or cough coming at you from within 6 feet can infect you with the flu.
[Female Voice #1]:So, it’s not spread through blood. It’s not spread through sexual contact. It’s purely respiratory droplets.
[Female Voice #2]:So if you get the flu, you’re able to infect other people beginning one day before your symptoms develop, and up to five to seven days after becoming sick. Children may pass the virus for longer than seven days. Your symptoms normally start one to four days after the virus enters your body. This means that you may be able to pass on the flu to someone before you even get sick.
[Female Voice #1]:So, say I’m in a classroom, a busy lecture, and someone next to me is sneezing and coughing. What do I do?
[Female Voice #2]:If the person next to you is sneezing and coughing, you definitely want to make sure you wash your hands, and if possible, move your seat for the day, or kindly ask the other person to maybe sit by themselves so they are not increasing everybody’s risk around them.
[Female Voice #1]: If all that fails, don’t touch your nose, eyes, or mouth. Try to use hand sanitizers.
[Female Voice #2]: And leave your water bottle in your backpack, too.
[Female Voice #1]: Yes.
[Female Voice #2]: You don’t want to drink those droplets in.
[Female Voice #1]: Ok, so we come to the point, again, we want everyone to get their flu shot. So, sometimes people have their reasons why they don’t want a flu shot. One reason is “I, or my relative, once got a flu shot and then got sick.”
[Female Voice #2]: So the flu shot itself can’t actually make you sick. The flu vaccine itself doesn’t contain a live virus and cannot cause the flu or any other illness. Some other viruses are very common during the flu season, so it may actually be one of those that you’ve got.
[Female Voice #1]: What if they say, “Well, I just don’t feel well enough to get a flu shot today.”
[Female Voice #2]: That’s something that we hear a lot here in the clinic. The exceptions to not getting a flu shot when you’re feeling poorly are patients with a fever. So people with a fever should wait until their fever’s gone before getting a flu shot. However, someone with a respiratory illness without fever, or another mild illness, can go ahead and get a flu shot.
[Female Voice #1]: What if they say “I received an immunization during the previous influenza season?”
[Female Voice #2]: So each year, a new form of the flu vaccine is formulated and it’s targeted to help prevent certain viruses. So each season involves a different strain of influenza and therefore each year requires a different vaccine.
[Female Voice #1]: Ok, so finally, if someone says “I’m healthy, so I don’t need a flu shot!”
[Female Voice #2]: Well the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the flu shot for most adults. A healthy adult who gets the flu could infect someone who’s more vulnerable.
So Dr. Skaggs, I’m allergic to eggs and I’ve never gotten the flu shot before, because I’ve heard people with egg allergies can’t get the flu shot. Is this still true?
[Female Voice #1]: With some flu vaccines this is true, but if you come into Student Health Services, we have an egg-free vaccine right here in the clinic.
[Female Voice #2]: Oh, that’s really neat. And I don’t really like to get shots either. Is the nasal influenza vaccine available this year?
[Female Voice #1]: Unfortunately it’s not available this year. We follow CDC guidelines and unfortunately over the past couple of years, the nasal influenza vaccine has not been ineffective. So for now, no nasal influenza vaccine.
Well great, that will wrap us up. So, Ags, don’t forget to tackle the flu. The first 4K flu shots are free to currently enrolled T-A-M-U students. The cost for non-students is $28. We do accept insurance. So say you use your insurance, that allows the next Aggie to get their shot for free. If you have any questions, get on our website at shs.tamu.edu. You can call us at 979-458-8310. The dates are October 4 and 5 between 8am and 5pm.
[Female Voice #2]: The locations for the flu shot campaign are at the Emerging Technologies Building (ETB), Evans Library, the MSC, and Wehner.
[Female Voice #1]: Thanks and Gig ‘em!
[Narrator Voice #1]: This is a production of TAMU health. Please note that these conversations are never meant to replace your home primary care physician. For any specific health questions, and prior to making a change with your medical care, please discuss with your provider, or come see us at Student
Health Services. If you have specific topics for the podcast, you can reach us through social media (TAMUhealth) on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or send us an email at . More information about the clinic can be found at Thanks and Gig ‘Em!
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