Flu season may not be in full swing until November, but Boston University students can still get vaccinated before the sickness spreads.
Student Health Services held the first of eight flu clinics on Tuesday at the Fitness and Recreation Center’s Dance Studio.
SHS Assistant Director Chris Valadao said SHS is working on an aggressive flu vaccine campaign that is slightly less expansive than last year.
This year, SHS ordered 4,000 vaccine doses as opposed to the 7,500 doses purchased last year.
“What’s great about the flu vaccine this year [is that] the flu vaccine is for the seasonal flu and for H1N1, so it’s a combined shot,” Valadao said.
Although the World Health Organization declared an end to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu vaccine for the 2010-11 season will still contain this strain of influenza.
According to its website, the CDC expects the swine flu to reappear this flu season.
CDC spokesperson Jeff Diamond said the center recommends everyone gets vaccinated.
“Because one, there is more vaccine than ever available,” he said. “Two, the 2009 H1N1 seems to attack younger people.”
The swine flu mainly affects adults under 60-years-old because the virus seems to prefer to attach itself to younger tissue, Diamond said.
Valadao said that for the first time this year, BU has purchased pre-filled syringes of the flu vaccine instead of vials.
“Instead of having to draw up 10 vaccines, you pop them out of the package and away you go,” he said. “It costs us a little bit more money, but the time it will save students in line is immeasurable.”
Valadao said BU is “light years” ahead of other schools in handling flu vaccination.
Last year, BU began using electronic database software to register students for the vaccine, he said.
Valadao said he estimates with the new system students will spend less than half an hour standing in line for the vaccination.
“My biggest challenge is how to let students know to get the shot, that the whole process is efficient, that they won’t be standing in line for an hour,” he said. “It just doesn’t work like that.”
However, some students, such as College of Communication senior Chris Chapman, said they don’t intend on attending the vaccine clinics.
“I mean, it’s just the flu,” he said. “I understand that it can be dangerous to certain populations…but it sometimes gets blown out of proportion…[the vaccine] seems a little unnecessary I guess.”
The vaccination clinics will run every Tuesday and Thursday from Oct. 5 to Oct. 28, according to SHS representatives.
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