UHS Urges Flu Shots for Students Get Shots

University Health Services (UHS) is asking every student to get a flu shot this fall, following the advice of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which says the shots may prevent confusion about potential anthrax patients who exhibit flu-like symptoms.

“Given the potential that the flu can masquerade as other things and can possibly hide inhalation anthrax, we would like to decrease flu cases as much as possible,” said Christopher M. Coley, chief of medicine at UHS.

The flu shots are an attempt to both limit the number of flu cases and make it easier to diagnose actual cases of anthrax and other bioterrorism-related diseases.

As the flu season approaches, CDC officials say they expect the number of suspected anthrax cases to rise, since flu symptoms mimic those of anthrax.

“People should get their flu shots,” Julie Gerberding, the acting deputy director of the CDC said in a national press conference earlier this month. “Now is the time to be especially compulsive about that.”

This year, UHS has ordered 2,500 extra flu shots in addition to the usual 8,000 doses. UHS receives its flu shot supply from the state health department.

“There are enough supplies for all students,” Coley said. “We don’t have sufficient supplies for the entire University, and we will lobby to get more supplies, but if they’re not available, we can’t.”

Last year, because of several corporate production problems, there was a nationwide flu shot shortage.

“There was less flu vaccine to go around, and because of that, [there was] a delay in distributing flu vaccine to providers,” said Ricki Lacy, director of public health nursing for the Cambridge Health Department.

Last winter, UHS gave 1,000 unused flu shots to the City of Cambridge, which was in desperate need of the vaccine. Despite CDC officials recently expressing their concerns vocally, the CDC has not changed its official flu shot guidelines, which recommend that all people over age 50 and chronic illness sufferers get vaccinated.

UHS has spent the past month vaccinating high-risk patients, while clinicians have received training on diagnosing bio-terorrism diseases.

“The key is taking specific case histories,” Coley said. “Concern and suspicion has to be heightened when people have been in suspicious situations.”

UHS officials said they are working closely with Mount Auburn Hospital, the Cambridge City Health Department and MIT Health Services to increase clinicians’ ability to screen for abnormal flu-like cases.

Despite recent bioterrorism scares, UHS officials said they are more worried about students contracting influenza than anthrax.

Each year, Coley said, 7 to 10 percent of an average community gets the flu, a statistic that is presumed higher in college communities where students live in close quarters.

“There’s no question that if you get the flu, you aren’t going to die,” said David S. Rosenthal ’59, director of UHS. “But it is still debilitating, and missing three to five days of classes is a severe disability. That’s what we want to prevent.”

Influenza is spread via moisture droplets, such as through hand contact or sharing computer keyboards.

Among Harvard students, a relatively low vaccination rate can provide a positive payoff, thanks to “herd immunity.”

“If we can vaccinate 30-50 percent, the group that doesn’t get vaccinated is protected by the group that gets vaccinated,” Coley said, explaining that if more students are vaccinated, there are fewer students who can transmit the flu to others.

UHS will be offering free flu shots for students in assorted dining halls, beginning Nov. 7. The schedule is available at www.uhs.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Arianne R. Cohen can be reached at cohen7@fas.harvard.edu.