While concern grows among health officials as to the possibility of an H1N1 outbreak following the winter break, University Health Services will host two more vaccination clinics in order to combat a possible recurrence of the flu.
The clinics will be held Jan. 22 and Jan. 29 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the SERF.
Director of University Health Services Sarah Van Orman said the goal of the clinics is to ensure as many students are vaccinated as possible. The clinics are especially important since it is difficult to know how many people have been vaccinated with the vaccine available to students at home.
According to UHS Epidemiologist Craig Roberts, 6,429 students were vaccinated by the end of December. Those students, coupled with students who contracted the illness, account for 20 percent of the UW campus currently immune to H1N1.
“Just having that chunk of susceptibilities out of the population, in the epidemiological sense, helps a lot,” Roberts said.
The clinics are being held during the first two weeks of the semester in hopes that students will be protected from the threat of contracting H1N1 for the rest of the spring semester, Van Orman said.
While the number of people reporting flu-like symptoms decreased over the course of last semester, both Van Orman and Roberts said the possibility for another outbreak is always present.
“Flu is very difficult to predict,” Van Orman said. “We certainly don’t know, but it actually is possible that we could have another outbreak here.”
Roberts added that influenza pandemics come in waves, and it would be wise for students to get vaccinated now while the illness is in a lull.
“The concern is that there will be more (H1N1) coming back later in the spring, so now is a really good window of opportunity for students to get immunized if they haven’t,” he said.
The vaccine will also be available via walk-in clinics at UHS until Jan. 29 if students are unable to attend the clinics at the SERF. After Jan. 29, students will still be able to get the vaccine at UHS, but will simply have to make an appointment.
