IU gets minimal flu shots

After a severe drought of flu shots both locally and nationwide, the IU Health Center has received what director Hugh Jessup calls "just a little bit more of a shipment." But this little bit should be enough, Jessup said, to serve needy individuals of the IU community.\n"We had so few left that if we'd held a clinic before, we would have been out in five minutes," Jessup said. "Now we believe we can have one."\nJessup declined to reveal the exact number of flu shots the Health Center received, but it was nowhere near the 3,000 that had been ordered.\nThe Health Center's flu shot clinic is planned for the week of Nov. 1-5, by appointment only. \nCalling for an appointment to have the shot is crucially important, Jessup says. Because the Centers for Disease Control is controlling where the flu shots go in the United States, Jessup needs to tell them by Thursday how many flu shots the Health Center has left -- which means that students or faculty members who fit the CDC's need-based criteria need to call for an appointment immediately.\n"The faster people sign up, the more I can subtract from the balance (of flu shots available)," Jessup said. "I need to be able to say to the CDC, 'I have 50 left' or 'I have 30 left.'"\nDespite how many flu shots are available, the criteria set in place by the CDC for eligibility still applies. At the beginning of October, the CDC stated "healthy people two to 64 years of age are asked to postpone or skip getting a flu shot this year so that available vaccines can go to protect those at a greater risk for flu complications." \nBut students, faculty and IU retirees and their high-risk spouses and dependants 12 and over are eligible if they will be pregnant during influenza season; have a chronic metabolic disease, diabetes, a kidney disease, a blood disorder or a weakened immune system; have chronic lung or heart disorders; take aspirin daily (and are between the ages of 2 to 18 years) or are health care workers. \nCDC guidelines also include criteria for children that is not directly applicable to IU's community. \n"We were not providing services at all before, and now we can," said Health and Wellness Director Anne Reese. "But they're still for those with high-risk factors."\nStill, getting the additional vaccines at all was a great surprise to Jessup, who expressed doubt in receiving more after the initial announcement of the shortage. Jessup expected flu shots to go to nursing homes or hospitals instead. \n"This is really a short window of time," Jessup said. "I think this will be the last for us."\n-- Contact health and \nscience editor Kelly Phillips kephilli@indiana.edu.