Flu Shots Signal Beginning Of Season

TAMPA - A steady stream of older people paraded into the Brandon Senior Center on Tuesday morning, becoming the first foot soldiers this fall to enlist in the annual microscopic war with the flu.

The operation usually runs smoothly, and this year is no different. Seniors, many of whom are called in from the bingo session next door, file in and fill out the paperwork before walking to the shot station. Each handed over a Medicare card to pay for the vaccination; each was given a yellow card to remind him or her to come back next year.

Clinton Pons, 82, of Brandon, rolled up the sleeve on his left arm, revealing a convenient target for the shot. The faded tattoo said 'U.S. Air Corps, 1941.' For Pons, the shot was nothing to fret about.

'I flew 47 missions over Europe,' he said as the inoculation was delivered just above the ink.

Not a flinch.

Stop It Before It Starts

Tuesday's first round of flu shots opened the door to the seasonal onslaught on the illness. Six other senior centers in the county will follow suit in the coming weeks, and the county health department will announce its immunization push, which begins Monday at a half-dozen locations throughout the county. Those locations are on the department's Web site, www.hillscountyhealth.org.

The vaccine is available annually through the health department, doctors' offices and community clinics, and there is plenty of it to go around, according to the health department's Web site.

Doug Holt, director of the health department, said his agency's push starts Monday, even though other groups in the county, including the Hillsborough Department of Aging Services, which sponsored Tuesday's round of shots, are getting a jump on this year's flu season.

Holt said the shots can be a lifesaver.

'What the public doesn't realize,' he said, 'is that we have people who become very sick and die due to influenza. In this community, we have an increase of 40 to 50 deaths during a typical flu season.

'People say that that is a mild flu season, but it's still a big deal when 40 or 50 people die,' he said. 'Getting shots is a way of protecting yourself and others. We're trying to vaccinate people before the actual flu season hits or is at its peak. The peak in Florida is as early as December but mostly in January and February.'

The flu is the flu, he said, and so far this year, there is no identifiable dominant strain. Such strains may emerge, and that's why it's important to get the shots early.

Mostly the immunizations take the form of shots. Ninety percent of the people getting the vaccine get it via the needle, he said. The other kind, which is given in the form of a nasal spray, is given only to people who are healthy and who have an aversion to shots, he said. The nasal immunization also is a bit more expensive.

The health department charges only the cost of the vaccine, about $20 a dose. Senior citizens are covered under Medicare, and children get it for free, as the tab is picked up by the federal government, he said.

Parents Urged To Take Action

Across the nation, health care officials this year are placing a greater emphasis on immunizing healthy babies and children and are urging parents to contact pediatricians to administer the inoculations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site states that vaccinations are most effective when administered in the fall because it typically takes two weeks until the vaccine becomes effective. The CDC urges health care providers to offer flu shots to patients during regular medical visits throughout the season.