Category: Health and Safety Updates

As temperatures rise during the week, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) offers advice on how to stay safe and avoid serious health problems.

Stay Cool

• Wear appropriate clothing: Choose lightweight, loose-fitting clothing.
• Use air conditioning: Take breaks in an air-conditioned location to cool down. Fans can provide comfort, but won’t prevent heat-related illnesses.
• Pace yourself: If you’re not accustomed to working in a hot environment, start slowly and pick up the pace gradually.
• Wear sunscreen: Sunburn affects your body’s ability to cool down and can make you dehydrated. Protect yourself from the sun by wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and apply and reapply sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher every two hours.
• Avoid hot and heavy meals: They add heat to your body.

Stay Hydrated

• Drink plenty of fluids: Drink more fluids than usual. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink.
  • Avoid surgary drinks, caffeine and alcohol. Avoid ice-cold beverages that could cause stomach cramping.
• Replace salt and minerals: Heavy sweating removes salt and minerals from the body that need to be replaced. A sports drink can replace the salt and minerals you lose in sweat.

Stay Informed

• Know the signs: Learn the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses and how to treat them.
• Use a buddy system: When working in the heat, monitor the condition of your co-workers and have someone do the same for you. Heat-induced illness can cause a person to become confused or lose consciousness
• Monitor those at high risk: Although anyone at any time can suffer from heat-related illness, some people are at greater risk than others.

As temperatures rise during the week, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) offers advice on how to stay safe and avoid serious health problems.

Avoid
When the temperature is very high, stay indoors. If you must go outside, dress properly and take breaks often. Keep in mind the following tips:

• Drink plenty of water
• Find airconditioned places to cool off
• Never leave kids or pets in a closed, parked vehicle
• If you go outside, remember to wear a hat and sunscreen
• Know who is at high risk:
  • Infants
  • Young children
  • Older adults
  • People with chronic medical conditions

Spot
Know the signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

Heat Stroke
Spot the common signs and symptoms of heat stroke:

• Very high body temperature, above 103 degrees
• Red, hot and dry skin with no sweating
• Rapid, strong pulse
• Throbbing headache
• Dizziness
• Upset stomach
• Confusion
• Passing out

Heat Exhaustion
Spot the common signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion:

• Heavy sweating
• Paleness
• Muscle cramps
• Tiredness
• Weakness
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Upset stomach or vomiting
• Fainting

If you see any of these signs, get medical help immediately.

Treat
While waiting for medical attention, you can help someone with heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

Heat Stroke
Move the victim to a shady area or indoors. Do not give the person fluids. Cool their body by:

• Placing the person in a cool (not cold) bath or shower
• Spraying them with a garden hose
• Sponging them with cool water
• Fanning them

Continue efforts to cool the person until help arrives or their body temperature falls below 102 degrees and stays there.

Heat Exhaustion
Get medical attention if symptoms get worse or last longer than one hour. Cool their body with:

• Cool, nonalcoholic beverages
• Rest
• A cool (not cold) bath, shower or sponge bath
• Moving them to an airconditioned room
• Giving them lightweight clothing

Seek medical help immediately if symptoms are severe or if victim has heat problems or high blood pressure.

COVID-19 Pfizer original series vaccines and bivalent booster shots are available at no additional charge to the Wichita State campus community.

The walk-in vaccinations are available in the Student Wellness Center.

Student Health Services (SHS) announced that students will have access to a variety of new health care needs. SHS will now start offering the following additional services:

• On-site X-ray and ultrasound.
• ADHD medications management.
• Orthopedic injury evaluation.
• Social services consultation.
• Nutrition consultations and weight support.

The myShockerHealth patient portal is intended to make it easier for students to interact and communicate with SHS. With this secure patient portal, students can schedule appointments online, request medications refills, pay balances, upload documents, read and print vaccination information, and connect with one of SHS’ health care professionals via secure messaging.

New students/patients can log into myShockerHealth or call SHS at 316-978-4792 to get started.

Wichita State has a single website for all students, staff and faculty to utilize for reporting any incidents of concerning behavior. If you see something that gives you cause for concern, please submit any information you have through the appropriate form on the website.

The website includes reporting forms for the following concerns:

• Care Team – Used to report any person who is concerned about the health or safety of a WSU student, employee, visitor or the campus community at large.
• Title IX/Discrimination – Used to report any discrimination on the basis of sex and all forms of protected characteristic discrimination.
• Bias Incident – Used to report any bias related incidents.
• Student Advocate – Used to report any student complaint, where the student advocate can help provide resources and resolution options.
• Conduct – Used to report behavior that is disruptive to the campus community, infringes on any person’s ability to successfully pursue their academic progress, violates the Student Code of Conduct, or puts others or themselves in danger.
• Academic Integrity – Used to report violations of the WSU Policies and Procedures Manual section 2.17, Student Academic Integrity.
• Clery – Used to report any Clery crimes.

Remember that if there is an emergency, always call the WSU Police Department at 316-978-3450 or dial 911.

Just in time for the surge of respiratory illnesses flooding the state, Wichita State University’s Molecular Diagnostics Lab has announced it will extend free RSV, influenza and COVID (RIC) testing through March 31, 2023.

The MDL has been providing public testing for COVID since October 2020, and the triple-virus RIC test was added to the MDL’s capabilities in December 2021. All MDL testing costs have been covered through CARES funding from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Currently enrolled Wichita State students, staff and faculty can get flu shots from Student Health Services (SHS) at a low cost from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Student Wellness Center.

Please keep in mind that it takes two weeks for a flu shot to get the most immunity and protection, so the earlier the better.

• The cost of the vaccine is $25 for currently enrolled Wichita State students and $35 for staff and faculty.
• If the patient has insurance, the card must be presented while checking in. Your flu shot coverage depends on your type of health insurance.
• No appointment is required to receive the shot.

For more information, contact 316-978-4792 or visit our website at SHS website.

Student Health Service’s final Pee for Pizza event for 2022 will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 7 at Student Wellness Center in the Steve Clark YMCA. During the event, participants can get tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia and then receive a free pizza. This month is dedicated to World AIDS Day, a global health day to raise awareness of HIV disease and those who have lost their lives to the infection.

Co-sponsored the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Positive Direction, and Shocker Sports Grill and Lanes, Pee for Pizza occurs twice a month through the fall and spring semesters. Reservations are required.No walk-ins will be accepted. Participants must not use the restroom for at least one hour before testing.

For more information or to make a reservation, contact SHS at 316-978-4792. Other tests are available upon request.

Walk-in COVID vaccination services through Student Health Services will have modified hours Nov. 28-Dec. 20.

Tuesdays – 9 a.m.-noon

Fridays – 1-4 p.m.

Dec. 19-20 — no COVID vaccines

Student Health Services will not be available while the university is closed for Thanksgiving break Nov 24-27. For medical care, learn more about after-hours care and emergencies. For a list of Covid-19 testing sites, please visit the Sedgwick County Health Department website. Student Health Services will reopen at 8 a.m. Monday, Nov 28.