Vaccinations for students

 

Flu vaccinations 

A vaccination is the best defense against the flu. That’s why University Health Service physicians recommend that students consider getting both a seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine when it becomes available later this fall. Students through age 24 will be among the first groups of individuals to get the H1N1 vaccine.  

Seasonal vaccine 

While college students are not among those at high risk for the seasonal flu, university health officials always encourage students to get this vaccine.  

There is an ample supply of the seasonal flu vaccine and it will be offered in many places through the broader community on an earlier timetable this year.

 The University Health Service is offering the seasonal flu vaccine and has several clinics already scheduled. Here is a link to those UHS clinics: http://www.uhs.umich.edu/fluvaccination. 

The University of Michigan Health System also has developed a Web site to track the growing number of seasonal flu vaccination clinics throughout the community. Here is a link: http://www.med.umich.edu/flu/shots/community.htm

You also may want to check with your primary care physician about getting a flu shot.  

H1N1 vaccine 

University Health Service will offer the H1N1 vaccine, at no charge, to all U-M students through age 24. In addition, students over age 25 with CDC-designated risk factors also will be offered the vaccine. 

As you may have read in the news media, shipment of the H1N1 vaccine may begin soon and studies seem to indicate that one dose of the vaccine may be sufficient to provide protection instead of the two does initially prescribed. Plans for the H1N1 vaccination clinics will be announced once the university knows when the vaccine will arrive. 

According to the CDC, the H1N1 vaccine will be distributed first to those groups determined to be the most vulnerable to the flu. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel made up of medical and public health experts, met this summer to recommend how to distribute the H1N1 vaccine. The groups recommended to receive the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine include: 

• Pregnant women because they are at higher risk of complications and can potentially provide protection to infants who cannot be vaccinated. 

• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age because younger infants are at higher risk of influenza-related complications and cannot be vaccinated. Vaccination of those in close contact with infants younger than 6 months old might help protect infants by “cocooning” them from the virus. 

• Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel because infections among healthcare workers have been reported and this can be a potential source of infection for vulnerable patients. Also, increased absenteeism in this population could reduce healthcare system capacity.

 • All people from 6 months through 24 years of age. Children from 6 months through 18 years of age because cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza have been seen in children who are in close contact with each other in school and day care settings, which increases the likelihood of disease spread. Young adults 19-24 years of age because many cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza have been seen in these healthy young adults and they often live, work, and study in close proximity, and they are a frequently mobile population. 

• Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza