Tufts Health Service will offer flu vaccinations to all graduate and undergraduate students during three clinics this season.
The clinics will be held today from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Oct. 12 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., according to Health Service Business Supervisor Mary Daley.
All 3,000 vaccinations that Health Service ordered last semester were used by students who attended the clinics, according to Health Service Medical Director Margaret Higham.
Side effects associated with the vaccination are generally minor, according to Higham, and sometimes include a sore arm.
"It's a remarkably well−tolerated immunization," she said.
Daley urged all students to get the vaccine in order to stay healthy.
"It is recommended that everyone six months of age or older get the flu vaccine once a year in the U.S.," Higham said.
The flu, in addition to being an unpleasant experience for its victims, she noted, often causes students to miss class.
"It's a nasty illness," Higham said. "People usually have a fever from anywhere from three to seven days." She added that the flu spreads particularly easily in a college community.
She noted that it is impossible to predict when or if an outbreak of the flu on campus will hit.
"Some years it hits at Thanksgiving, some years it doesn't hit until the end of February," said Higham. It's extremely unpredictable."
Although the Health Service flu clinics are only available to students, Human Resources is organizing a vaccine program for Tufts employees, according to Daley.
