Registered nurse Teri Bodensteiner carefully administers the H1N1 vaccine for Western sophomore Emily Johnson Tuesday afternoon. “My mom wanted me to it,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to be missing classes.” Photo by Hailey Tucker
Hoards of students and faculty lined up Tuesday for free H1N1 virus vaccinations in the Performing Arts Center lobby. Many waited hours for screening before finally receiving the nasal spray vaccine.
Two registered nurses administered the government-funded vaccinations from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., two and a half hours longer than anticipated.
A total of 309 students have contacted the Health Center with flu-like symptoms since school began, and one student was hospitalized and released, according to the health center’s swine flu blog. The center is allowed to send three samples a week to the state department of health for testing, but many come back positive for the H1N1 virus.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency, has allocated the vaccination throughout the United States based on population size. According to its Web site, 75,600 doses have been shipped to Washington state, and of those, Western received 400 last Friday.
Even though age and health restrictions were enforced, all 400 doses were given to students and faculty at the clinic, said Teri Bodensteiner, one of the nurses administering the vaccine.
“The clinic was supposed to start at 10:30 a.m., but there were students lined up at 9 a.m.,” Bodensteiner said. “Next time we are looking to do some kind of an online reservation thing and hopefully have more medical people.”
Western junior Katie Powell said she got to the PAC before the line was too long, but still ended up waiting for three hours.
Western freshman Yi-ran Li waited approximately two hours for his vaccination.
“It’s like regular nasal spray,” he said. “You expect like a big machine to come down and beam something in your face, but it’s just like nasal spray; tastes like it, too.”
Recipients had to pass an evaluation through a screening questionnaire, which restricted those older than 24 years of age, those already sick and those who are pregnant or have chronic health problems such as asthma and diabetes.
The center put restrictions in place because of the low amount of vaccine manufacturers have been able to create since the H1N1 flu epidemic began approximately six months ago, and because of the type of vaccine, which is categorized as a live, weakened intranasal vaccine.
The intranasal vaccine works like the regular shot-in-arm vaccine by tricking the immune system into creating antibodies to fight the flu, except it uses the actual, live virus cultures instead of dead ones.
The H1N1 virus is expected to be around for a while, but next year the seasonal flu vaccine will include an H1N1 strain, Gibson said, so people can get all the vaccinations needed in one shot.
Compared to Washington State University, Gibson said she is impressed with how cautious the Western community has been about spreading germs. She said the WSU outbreak was greatly related to the close quarters of the fraternity and sorority rush. Based on how many cases of illness she has seen thus far, she said Western has been more cautious.
“I expected much larger numbers than what we’ve seen,” Gibson said.
Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.
Be first to comment on this article
