Heath Service offers preventative options to ensure students stay healthy during the last few and coldest weeks of the semester.

There are a few shots students should be aware of in order to keep themselves healthy.

Eastern’s Health Services provides the option of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, shots, said Nita Shrader, an administrative nurse at Health Services. However, Health Services has not ordered the immunization shots this year.

In order to order HPV shots, Health Services must have at least 10 names of people who definitely want to have the shot and Health Services has not gotten the first 10 names.

The HPV shots come in a series of three shots and each shot costs between $120 and $130, Shrader said.

“There are over 100 strains of HPV,” Shrader said. “There are some dangerous strains than others.”

The more dangerous strains of HPV do cause cervical cancer, while the less dangerous ones don’t.

Some strains of HPV can also cause genital warts in women.

The Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center has a similar procedure.

“We order them (HPV shots) as we need them,” said Jerry Esker, director of pharmaceutics at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center.

Sarah Bush provides the HPV shots in its medical offices but not in the hospital portion of the health center, Esker said.

“It would be given to healthy women between the ages of 9 and 24,” Esker said. The HPV shot is a preventive shot so it cannot be given to someone if that person is sick, which is why it is not provided in the hospital.

There are no symptoms for HPV, Shrader said. The only way to know if someone has HPV is through abnormal pap smears.

“It’s dangerous in women,” Shrader said. However, in men, it’s less dangerous than in women.

“Most of the time it (HPV) is sexually transmitted,” Shrader said.

Flu season approaches

Students should also be aware of flu season.

“Most students have the wrong idea of the influenza,” Esker said. The flu is not vomiting and head colds.

“It’s a respiratory disease,” Esker said. Some symptoms of the flu are high fevers, headaches, body aches, and sore throats.

Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center carries 8,000 flu vaccines, Esker said. About 6,000 out of the flu vaccines are being distributed to members of the community, while the other 2,000 are free to employees.

Health Services offered flu clinics on Oct. 10 and 17 and are planning to hold two more at Eastern’s recreational center from 4 to 6 p.m., today.

“All EIU students have access to the free flu shots at the free clinic and at Health Services,” said Rachel Fisher, promotions coordinator at the Health Education Resource Center.

During the two October clinics, Health Service gave shots to 268 students, Shrader said. For the two clinics this week, Health Service ordered 900 shots.

In order to get the flu shot, the person cannot have a fever at the time of the shot, Fisher said.

According to Shrader, Health Service also orders flu vaccinations in January of every year.

On past experiences, drug companies designed the flu vaccination to fight off certain types of strings of the flu and health centers are able to order the flu vaccine after the first of the year, Shrader said.

“The only thing that detours a student from getting the flu shot is if the student is really sick,” Shrader said.

If the student has a stuffy nose, but no fever, the nurse giving the flu shot will go ahead and give the student the flu shot, she explained.

Sarah Bush orders its flu vaccines in January for the following flu season, so it has to estimate as accurately as possible how many shots it will need, Esker said.

The cold weather does not necessarily cause people to get the flu, Shrader said. However, since it is colder, people tend to stay indoors more and because of that, it causes the flu to spread faster.

Health Service does the clinics in order to keep students healthy so they can go to class and stay in school, Shrader said.

“That’s our whole purpose for being a student service,” Shrader said.

Flu shots do help students fight the flu.

“We (Heath Service) do see less sick kids,” Shrader said.