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Prevention Video: Why don't we do it in our sleeves?
Health Services offers the flu vaccine to Virginia Wesleyan community.
The weather may be still be deceptively warm, but cold and flu season is just around the corner. It’s time to start thinking about ways to protect yourself and your loved ones from becoming ill.
Influenza (flu) is more than just a bad cold; it is a serious illness caused by a virus that infects the respiratory system. The flu kills more than 36,000 people each year in the United States; and more than 200,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized with complications of the flu such as bronchitis, pneumonia, heart problems, and sinus and ear infections.
Beginning on Monday, Oct. 15, Virginia Wesleyan’s Health Services Office will begin offering the flu vaccine to the Virginia Wesleyan campus community. The vaccine is available for $15 payable by cash or check.
“Anyone wishing to avoid the flu this winter should get the vaccine,” said Mary Cureton, R.N., director of health services at Virginia Wesleyan. “Receiving an annual influenza (flu) immunization protects you, your family, your friends, your roommates, your classmates and your co-workers from becoming ill.”
Serious respiratory illnesses are spread by coughing, sneezing and unclean hands. Germs can live for a long time (some can live for two hours or more) on surfaces like doorknobs, desks and tables.
There are four very basic ways to decrease your chances on contracting the flu this season:
- Get the flu vaccine. It’s quick and easy.
- Cough and sneeze into your sleeve instead of into your hand. Germs die faster in fabric, and this prevents the transfer of cold and flu germs to doorknobs, phones, tables etc. (Watch prevention video "Why don't we do it in our sleeves?" by Ben Lounsbury, M.D.)
- Wash your hands properly (and often) with warm soap and water for 15 to 20 seconds. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches their eyes, nose or mouth.
“There are many simple ways to prevent the spread of the flu,” Cureton said. “People tend to think that things like getting the flu shot and washing hands properly are too easy to work, but these are key to fighting the flu.”
The Health Services Office is located in Village II, and flu clinic hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information about the vaccine, please call 757.455.3108 or e-mail mcureton@vwc.edu.
For more information about the flu from the Centers for Disease Control, visit the CDC Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/.
10.10.07