The cold and flu season has arrived and the Health Center is taking part in the national Cover Your Cough campaign to raise awareness about cold and flu prevention.

Laurie Bisset Grady, the health education director for the Health Center, said the Health Center is now open for flu shots.

Free flu shots are available in the Health Center between the hours 8 a.m. – noon and 2 – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Fridays.

The Health Center is spreading news about the campaign by posting fliers around campus, Grady said.

“Our Cover Your Cough campaign is being done as a preventative action towards reducing cold and flu,” Grady said.

According to the Center for Disease Control website, five to 20 percent of the population gets the flu every year. About 200,000 people are hospitalized and about 36,000 people die from the flu each year.

Diane Sipkin, head of the Infection Control Committee, which works in conjunction with the Health Center, said that the campaign this year is important because of the recent nationwide concern for the bird flu.

Also, there is no shortage of flu vaccines compared to last year, Dr. Sipkin said.

Sipkin said the Health Center is prepared for the cold and flu season, and the staff makes special arrangements to help people out.

“During this time of the year when we get closer to the peak of flue season, which is normally is during the winter time, if a doctor calls in sick, or we are short staffed, we bring in practitioners from the area to help out, where during the summer time we would normally not do that,” Sipkin said.

Sipkin said people who do get sick need to try and check themselves to see if it is necessary for them to go to the doctor.

“When you have a cold, there is nothing that can be prescribed for it. You could just stick to over the counter medications, but when you get the flu there is medication that can be prescribed,” she said. “When you have the flu, you would have high fever, chills, aching of the joints.”

Sipkin said a lot of people come in when they only have a cold, and that can slow the Health Center down.

Philip Malan can be reached at [email protected]