At the height of flu season this year, students worry about becoming sick after last year’s encounter with the H1N1 illness.

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new 2010-2011 flu season vaccines that protect against H1N1, a strain of influenza, Perth, a strain of influenza B, and Brisbane.

The Centers for Disease Control suggests that everyone over the age of 6 months receives a vaccination. This year, the manufacturing company of the vaccines plans to produce well over 170 million doses of the new vaccines. The company wants an early start because last year, H1N1 vaccines came too late for many.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11-0 that vaccines were highly recommended for everyone except for those with preconditions such as egg allergies or other health issues that could make the flu vaccine dangerous for the receiver.

Two different types of vaccines are available: the flu shot and the nasal spray flu vaccine. The flu shot is an inactivated vaccine or a contained killed virus, while the nasal spray flu vaccine is a weakened live virus for use by healthy people ages two to 49 years old.

“Vaccines are meant to help people or else they wouldn’t have been created. They will keep our society from developing even worse diseases,” senior Taylor Papainni said.

The symptoms for the flu are like that of a common cold, which is why many cases go undetected. Symptoms of swine flu include a runny nose, fever, cough, body aches, sore throat, headache and fatigue, none of which are uncommon to the symptoms for a cold.

Many students are doing their best to prevent themselves from becoming sick.

“The best thing people can do is wash their hands with soap and water and pay attention to your body. If you feel sick, go to the doctor,” Joyce Brislawn, Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) sponsor and health teacher, said.

But some students argue that conditions in school do not allow for adequate sanitation.

“At the height of flu season there should be soap in the soap dispenser,” sophomore Alessandra Parodi said.

Others take the initiative to prevent the flu at all costs. Some ways to prevent sickness is to not  touch one’s face with unclean hands or eat with dirty hands, staying aware of who one surrounds themselves with,  and keeping clean.