Sitting on the edge of a flu epidemic sweeping in from the east, Pepperdine’s Malibu campus came back to school last Monday with a heightened demand for flu shots. Since September, the Student Health Center has provided approximately 480 flu shots to students — for free. But as of Tuesday, the Student Health Center has officially run out of vaccinations.
The flu clinic on Tuesday, which administered around 120 flu shots to students, faculty and staff in the Fireside Room, drained the SHC’s supply. SHC Director Nancy Safinick and nurse Arleen Fernandez were forced to turn away students and wait for a new shipment.
“On the side I was clapping that everyone was getting it, and on the other side I thought, ‘Oh no, we’re going to run out,’” Safinick said. “More flu shots were supposed to come in the morning of the clinic.”
This was not the case.
In SHC Safinick’s 20-year experience, this isn’t typical during this time of the year, but she also said she’s not worried.
About 200 flu vaccinations are supposed to arrive today or Friday, Safinick said, and another flu clinic for students, faculty and staff is scheduled for Wednesday.
The SHC’s primary vendors are GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, the two major vaccine producers in the United States according to USA Today. Last week, however, Fernandez said the East Coast companies depleted their supply to secondary vendors. Increased media attention to flu activity only worsened the spot shortage.
“If there is a need, we’re going to find it,” Safinick said. “But in H1N1, this was the same problem.”
The H1N1 pandemic in the 2009-2010 school year forced the health center to re-evaluate flu prevention. After H1N1, Safinick was able to get funding for free flu shots from Student Affairs and administration every year after. The SHC also started ordering twice as many vaccinations at the beginning of the year, going from 250 to 500 flu shots.
“H1N1 changed our lives,” Safinick said.
Health officials now are calling the widespread flu activity an epidemic.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that flu activity is on the upswing, with 29 states in “high influenza-like illness activity” since last week. Since the beginning of October, the CDC has reported 3,710 laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalizations.
Back at Pepperdine, Safinick said the health center is staying on top of social media and the web page’s medical alerts to combat flu transmission. Last year’s flu season was mild They are “screening and triaging” students in the health center, Safinick said, meaning students showing influenza-like symptoms are taken immediately.
“We are encouraging self-isolation, staying as far away from other people if you are symptomatic and … [staying] in your dorm or residence for 24 hours after your fever has gone away, not using fever reducing medication,” Safinick said.
Safinick wanted to make points about influenza clear. One, everyone should practice avoidance behavior. This mostly means washing hands and coughing into your sleeve (the Count Dracula-cough, as Safinick put it). Viral particles are trapped into the cloth, “and that’s the end of it.”
Two, she wanted to dispel the notion that getting a flu shot will give you the flu.
“What’s in the flu shot is a killed virus,” Safinick said. “It is not going to give you the flu. No, no and no.”
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