The University of North Alabama helped students meet the immunization requirements for enrollment with an immunization compliance clinic on Oct. 10. University Health Services partnered with Chad’s Payless Pharmacy to provide students with free and discounted inoculations to help them meet these requirements.
The event marked the university’s third and final immunization compliance event of this kind of the semester. As spring registration gets closer, some students may be barred from class registration if they do not fulfill these requirements. As registration holds were placed on non-compliant students on Oct. 1, the clinic assisted students in satisfying vaccination requirements before registration opens on Oct. 28. UHS will hold a separate, flu shot-specific clinic, before Thanksgiving break.
“We’ve had the immunization policy for a few years now,” said Sheena Burgreen, the Executive Director for Health and Well-Being at UHS. “We wanted to allow students that may not have had access to a vaccine in the past, or students that were unable to get it for whatever reason, an opportunity to come on campus and have them.”
UHS provided students with vaccinations for the flu, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (TDAP) and provided tuberculosis skin tests. For vaccines that the university was unable to provide, such as for varicella, chicken pox, meningitis and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) Chad’s Pharmacy stepped in.
“With communal living with students, and all of the activities that they’re doing together, it’s important to have as much preventative medicine as you can,” said Frances Heinze, the owner of Chad’s Pharmacy. “Any time you can prevent having diseases that are easily preventable through vaccines, I think it’s a great program.”
Chad’s Pharmacy also helped students file insurance for the vaccines in order to help lower the cost of the shots for them.
Heinze also voiced her support for the university’s strong stance on vaccination requirements.
“We were really happy to hear that the college was enforcing the vaccine recommendations,” she said. “We think it’s really important to keep the students healthy and safe. We’re really happy to be a part of it.”
