Traveling nurses administer flu shots
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CHARLO – A team of traveling nurses with the Lake County Health Department are making their way around the valley with boxes of syringes and Band-Aids to make sure that everyone gets a flu shot this season.
“We want people vaccinated,” said Registered Nurse Leigh Estvold. “It is especially important for the really young, anyone with a chronic disease and the elderly.”
The team stopped in at the Charlo Senior Center on Thursday. Several dozen seniors lined up with their sleeves rolled to receive a shot. Jody D. Hunter, Health Department office manager, helped them fill out insurance information to cover the cost of the shot, which was $30.
The line went quickly until it was Becky Olsen’s turn. She sat down for her shot, but first Registered Nurse Savanna Bell asked her, like everyone else, if she was allergic to eggs. The shot is developed in an egg base. The next question was about Guillain-Barre’ syndrome, which was a kind of temporary paralysis with other symptoms. The nurses said despite the strange name people would know what it was called if they’d ever had it. Olsen was cleared to have a shot.
“It didn’t hurt,” she said. “Those are amazing little needles. I think the flu shot is a good thing, but some people don’t get one because they think they cause the flu.”
Nurse Estvold explained that a person “can’t get the flu from a flu shot.” She said that the viruses in the shot are inactive and work by building up a person’s immunity, although she added that “you can still get the flu even if you get the flu shot but it should be mild.”
The Health Department is using a four-strain vaccine in each syringe with two types of influenza A and two types of influenza B. The Center for Disease Control decides what strains to use.
“They pick the strains that were prevalent last year and put them in the vaccine,” she said.
Sharon and George Guenzler have been married for 52 years, and they had no idea how many times they’ve gotten a flu shot, but they usually get one together. Barbara Ellen Davis also got her flu shot.
“I think it helps,” she said. “I haven’t gotten the flu.”
The Health Department team is traveling to several locations including the Ronan Senior Center on Monday, Oct. 5, from 1-2 p.m.
