Miami Student

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Campus

Graduate student Tanya Romero-Gonalez receives a flu shot vaccination at the Miami Student Health Services Center.

Classes reached the midpoint of the semester last week, bringing heavier workloads for students, longer nights of studying at King Library and full days of running to classes and meetings.

With flu season quickly approaching, all this stress and activity takes a toll on the body, leaving students more susceptible to contracting the virus. However, there are several options available to students to protect themselves from influenza.

According to Sharon Osterberger, nursing supervisor at the Student Health Services Center, between 5 and 20 percent of the American population contract influenza every year. This means that approximately 800 to 3,200 Miami students will develop flu symptoms this year. However, that number far overshadows the number of students proactively seeking to protect themselves from the virus.

"Normally we only see 450 students a year," Osterberger said.

Osterberger explained that many students do not believe flu shots to be a necessity, but due to the unique living conditions of college students, she believes that even if students have not taken flu vaccines before, they should get immunized now.

"In high school, students lived with their families and saw different people at school," Osterberger said. "They did not have large exposure to people who are ill for more than six or eight hours a day. Now, they're living in a residence hall with 40 to 50 people on a quad who are sneezing and coughing. They're with the same population (for longer periods of time) so the exposure to sick people becomes higher."

According to Osterberger, the influenza virus is spread from person to person primarily through coughing and sneezing. The flu is highly contagious and infected students may transmit the virus to others before developing symptoms.

"You can pass on the flu to someone else before you even realize that you're sick," Osterberger said. "The flu can actually (be transmitted to) people one day before symptoms develop and five days after you become sick."

Osterberger explained that the most noticeable symptoms of the flu are a high fever, headache, muscle aches, and extreme tiredness, but they may be accompanied by a dry cough, sore throat and a runny or stuffy nose.

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