The best way to protect against influenza is to wash your hands with soap & water frequently; avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth and maintain space from others. Your next best protection is to get vaccinated each year.  The "flu shot" is an inactivated vaccine (killed virus) given in the arm.  You cannot get influenza from the vaccine. It’s approved for people over the age of 6-months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.  Antibodies that provide protection against the influenza virus develop about 2 weeks after the injection.  The viruses in the vaccine change each year based on which types and strains of virus are in circulation.

Anyone who wants to reduce their chance of getting the flu can get vaccinated.  Yearly vaccinations usually begin in the fall and continue through the flu season, sometimes into January and beyond.  Some minor effects of the shot are soreness, redness, or swelling at the injection site, low grade fever and aches.

People who should not get the flu shot include children less than 6-months of age, people with egg allergies, people who have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccination, and people who have moderate-to-severe illness with a fever (they should wait until they recover to get vaccinated.) 

Student Health anticipates "flu shots" will be available for a fee after 10/15/09. 

To reserve your flu shot for 2009:

Send a message from your Missouri S&T account to mstshs@mst.edu with the subject line as follows:
Flu Shot deposit; Last name, First name; Student ID number.
We will respond & set an appointment time,
then charge your JoeSS account a non-refundable $15 to reserve a flu shot for you when they are available.

We will publish a notice on our home page when the shots are available.