Welcome, class of 2029!
A big welcome to all the freshers who descended on Edinburgh this month! We hope you settled in well and are enjoying your classes.
As an ex-Edinburgh student myself, and having spent my university years helping patients who were fellow students in the pharmacy, I’d love to give you some of the best tips and tricks for surviving the start of your first university semester.
Freshers Flu is no joke
While it’s not a specific illness, freshers’ flu refers to the horrible, flu-like illness you get right at the start of the semester. Imagine tens of thousands of students descending on a very small area, mixing together, mingling, living together, clubbing… You are bound to get sick.
Take it seriously. For most of you this will be your first illness without Mum or Dad to look after you. Caring for yourself while sick is not easy.
You need:
Rest - email your lecturers to let them know you’ll be joining online and will catch up later. One duvet day will not ruin your whole semester, I promise
Fluids - drink water like it’s going out of fashion. If you’re weeing every hour and it’s almost completely clear, that’s where you want to be. Being hydrated is half the battle with viral illnesses.
Immunity boosters - vitamin C, zinc and echinacea are proven to shorten the lifespan and reduce the severity of colds and similar illnesses
Symptomatic relief - this is just medicines to help your symptoms. See us in store or book a video call for recommendations on these!
Analgesia - this covers paracetamol and ibuprofen. Only take them if it’s safe for you to do so - read the back of the box and the leaflet first. They are amazing medicines and can help with fever and inflammation (especially good for sore throats)
Topical relief - this is medicine put onto the area. For example, sore throats can be treated with lozenges (Strepsils) and throat sprays
Oral rehydration - these are electrolytes in tablet or sachets which you mix with water and drink. They can help to rehydrate you more efficiently if you show signs of dehydration (like headaches, dark coloured wee or dry mouth)
Good food - eat well to get well. You need a good amount of protein, carbs and veg to get you through an illness (hence chicken soup is the famous cure-all). If you’re struggling with appetite, any food is good food. Once you’re well enough to cook, take it as an opportunity to fine-tune your cooking skills!
Edinburgh is beautiful, compact and sprawling all at once. Whether you’re at George Square all year or all over the many campuses, you’ll need to protect your feet. One day of walking is all it takes to develop tendon pain, persistent blisters or calluses.
Get some good boots! You’ll need them as we move into icier weather anyway, and making sure they fit properly by breaking them in will reduce your risk of blisters
Carry a mini first aid kit with plasters and antiseptic cream (e.g. Germolene)
Get some insoles to cushion your feet
2. It’s a ‘walking city’. Even if you get the bus, you’ll be on your feet an awful lot.
Some STIs can mean you can’t have sex until the treatment has been shown to be successful. That could be weeks or months for some people.
Simply practicing safe sex can protect you from all manner of unpleasant illnesses.
3. Safe sex now is better than no sex later
You can practice safe sex by:
Regularly testing for STIs. You can do this using Randox STI kit (simply order it to your home and send it off for results) or using one of the NHS postal test kits (see the link here)
Making sure your partner is regularly testing
Using a condom
Cleaning toys
4. Be scabies-aware
The last few years have seen outbreaks of scabies around this time of year, as students come back together. Scabies are a small mite that live in the skin. They can cause intense itching and scabbing, and are very contagious by skin-on-skin contact or shared towels.
You can treat scabies with a cream bought over the counter with us. People who have symptoms will need 2 treatments, while their close contacts who don’t have symptoms (including flatmates) will need one treatment.
Symptoms of scabies include:
Intense itching
Blemishes
Rash, commonly found on or around the:
folds of skin between fingers and toes
wrists
underarm area
waist
groin
bottom
Some people may also develop a rash on their head, neck, palms and soles of the feet.
5. Check you have your vaccines up-to-date
Young people attending university are at risk of contagious diseases like measles and meningitis. These illnesses can kill, and are largely preventable.
Sadly, in recent years, two University of Edinburgh students died during a meningitis outbreak.
You can find out if you’ve been vaccinated by contacting your GP for your records. If you previously lived in England, you may be able to access this through your NHS app (sadly not available for Scottish residents).
Vaccines which we recommend for university students (if you are previously unvaccinated or have not completed a course of the vaccine, or are due for a booster):
MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella)
Meningitis A, C, W-135, Y
HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)
Influenza
COVID-19
Td/IPV (Tetanus, Diphtheria and Poliomyelitis)
For healthcare/occupational-risk students:
Hepatitis B
Chickenpox
