The Student Health Clinic is giving $15 flu shots to students, faculty and staff Nov. 4-5 from 1:30-4:30 p.m.

The clinic prefers exact change for the shots. Remaining shots will be given to the public after Nov. 5.

The clinic received the vaccine from two manufacturers, including a vendor from the Arkansas Department of Health.

There are 950 shots available this fall, an increase of 200 shots from last year, so the staff at the clinic is hoping there will be more students wanting the shots.

The clinic ran out of shots last fall, so to prevent this from happening again, the manufacturers will give the clinic more shots if available, Health Clinic Assistant Director Christie McCroy said.

“We have made agreements to order more vaccines if we need more and if there are shots available,” McCroy said. “It will take about a week to receive them, so when we get low, we will reorder.”

The clinic staff is preparing routines to get faculty, staff and students out quickly and efficiently.

“We have made a system that will take a person an average of 15-20 minutes to pay for their shots, do paper work, receive the vaccine and leave,” McCroy said. “The time amount all depends on how many people are in line.”

McCroy said the health clinic is trying to get the word out to students about the flu shots this year. Over the years the number of faculty and staff receiving shots has outnumbered the amount of students receiving the shot.

“College students who get the influenza virus usually have it for 7-10 days,” McCroy said. “Most students cannot miss that many days of class, work and social events.”

Because of this, McCroy said the clinic encourages students to pay the $15 for the shot, so they will not miss school or events.

“We are the cheapest around this area and most convenient,” McCroy said. “We do not want to spread this virus around the campus.”

According to flufacts.com, 5-20 percent of the American population gets the flu each year. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications and about 36,000 people die from the flu every year.

McCroy said the difference between the flu and a regular cold is that with the flu, a person has a higher fever and extreme symptoms that get worse rapidly.

Sandy Chilverss, a nurse at the Student Health Clinic said: “Common flu symptoms are usually high fever, headache, severe muscle aches, chills, extreme tiredness, dry cough, runny nose and stomach symptoms – such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.”

The main flu shot myth is that after receiving the flu vaccine, a person will still catch the flu.

“It is not unlikely that you will get sick, but it is not the flu,” McCroy said. “Your body was already infected with a different type of bacteria. We are giving shots out so early before the flu season begins so that your body will be immune to the virus when others may have it.”

There are side effects to getting the flu shots, she said.

“You might feel a little sick the day after you receive the shots with body aches but they will go away soon,” McCroy said.