Transylvania University’s unique approach to fighting the flu

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Because so many people are sick doctors offices and walk-in clinics are overwhelmed.

University health clinics are packed, too.

Transylvania University in Lexington worked hard to get ahead of what has turned out to be a bad flu season.

“We are averaging usually eight to nine students a day and we’re up to 10 to 14,” says Ashley Hill, director of well-being at Transylvania University.

Seeing more patients than usual this time of year isn’t new. But what is, is how the  university is trying to battle the bugs.

“We wanted to have to offer students a way to take care of themselves if they weren’t feeling well,” says Chase Waskey, a health educator at Transy.

The solution is free ‘make your own flu kits’.

“So they can come in and kind of pick and choose what they wanted or what they needed. Everyone is different when they’re sick with what makes them feel better,” says Waskey.

Students can choose from cough drops, over-the-counter medicines, Vick’s VapoRub, hand saniziter, soups, tissues and more.

“Mainly I wanted them to be comfortable cause they’re away from home and I know whenever I’ve been away from when I was in college it was really hard when I was sick cause I didn’t want to go out and buy all those things for myself so I wanted to give them a little piece of that here,” says Waskey.

Another way the school is tackling the flu season is a new spray machine it bought to kill all kinds of bacteria in all campus buildings, dorms especially.

“It will kill flu, Coronavirus though we haven’t had any in Kentucky or any in campus, any of those major disease prevention methods they can go in and spray all the buildings,” says Hill.

Even though more students have been sick this season…

“I think we’ve been able to curtail the spread of the flu hopefully with this machine and our make your own flu kits,” says Hill.

That combination has proven to be a prescription for good health at Transylvania.

Students have easy access to the health clinic during the week.

They can walk-in and be seen or schedule an appointment online.