The Health and Counseling Center (HCC) received 200 more flu shots last Wednesday after running out early last week following the outbreak of a nation-wide flu epidemic.
Although HCC has received additional supplies of the vaccine, Dr. Alan Kent, executive director at HCC, said to expect the shots to run out again by early this week.
According to Kent, the flu is seen as a serious public health problem for any college campus.
“If students get the flu, then they are out of classes for a week to 10 days and they get truly behind, especially in our quarter system,” said Kent.
According to Kent, the HCC starts publicizing flu vaccinations as early as September and October in the fall quarter.
“This year was very different,” said Kent. “We had a very difficult flu season, especially with it being a top news story.”
Typically, said Kent, the HCC orders between 2,000 and 2,500 flu shots a year.
According to Kent, this year the HCC had 2,500 vaccines which they provided as a free public service to students on campus, regardless of insurance coverage.
“That is the equivalent of immunizing 25 percent of students,” said Kent. “Our students have done a good job compared to other same-size universities which typically only have three to five percent of their student body immunized during the flu season.”
Kent attributed the higher vaccination numbers on campus to successful marketing strategies by HCC and student responsiveness.
“We had free flu clinics from October through November outside the Coors Fitness Center, on Driscoll Bridge and in the clinic,” said Kent. “We wanted to obviously get as many students immunized as possible.”
Although a majority of students who do receive the flu vaccine typically do so during October and November, Kent said the HCC wanted to see if they could get more students immunized in January.
Kent said that after the winter break the HCC still had 200 to 300 shots left.
“We looked back at the statistics from previous years to see how many shots we gave out in the spring,” said Kent. “In 2010 it was only 80, in 2011 it was 179, and we realized that it is not too late to continue immunizing through the end of January. So far this January we’ve already given out 590.”
According to Kent, the HCC contacted many local drug stores before they found a small supplier with more flu doses that they could order.
“Our flu shots are usually produced by independent manufacturers, and are prepared up to a year in advance, with each year’s dose being produced based on the past year’s season,” said Kent. “Obviously it was a new situation this year, with so many people wanting to protect themselves against the epidemic, as we have never run out before.”
As such, Kent said that the HCC ordered 200 more doses from the private supplier and has continued to publicize to get as many people as possible immunized quickly. The HCC had one positive flu case in December; since Jan. 13, there have been 22 confirmed cases of the flu.
Kent said that the primary reason to continue immunizing students was that the flu season is in the news so much.
“We really made a push this January,” he said. “We had our typical posters around campus, but this year, because it was a more serious public health issue, we collaborated with the DU Marketing and Communications Department and sent direct emails to students.”
According to Kent, the HCC was very proactive in immunizing students.
“I feel that we’ve been very successful and very good about it this year,” said Kent. “We marketed very hard.”
Kent said that the new flu shot orders are already available to students and that it is not too late to get immunized, because once you are, you are less likely to be affected by the epidemic.
“Make sure to stop by Driscoll Bridge or the HCC clinic to get your flu shot this week,” said Kent. “We now only have a limited number, and it typically takes up to two weeks before it becomes effective.”
