As the weather gets colder, preparations are already underway for the coming flu season at the University.
Student Health officials and Medical Center doctors will provide information and resources for students concerned about vaccinations and recent media coverage of avian flu.
Sandra Murray, associate director of administration for Student Health, said Student Health is preparing for influenza with a vaccination clinic, FluFest, in Newcomb Hall Nov. 3.
"Parents hopefully have received a letter right now explaining the details of this," Murray said.
Flu vaccines cost $23, and Student Health officials also will administer other vaccines that students have not yet received, Murray said.
The clinic has to be held in November because of Center for Disease Control regulations, Murray said.
"The CDC had required that anyone getting flu shots should wait 'til after October 25th so that people who are most at risks for the complications of flu could get the first doses that were available," she said.
With Winter Break in December, the vaccine is beneficial on an individual and community basis, Murray added.
"In terms of the vaccine itself, we're really encouraging as many people to get the vaccine that can," she said. "If you're protected against the flu, you're not going to bring flu home to the family -- especially youngsters and older adults that have not gotten the vaccine themselves."
Internal Medicine and Pathology Prof. Frederick G. Hayden said he also recommends students consider flu vaccines.
"I think that the influenza vaccine is our primary means of protection," Hayden said.
The two vaccines offered are the traditional injected vaccine and the intra-nasal vaccine, he said.
With recent media coverage of avian flu in Asia, Hayden said there is cause for concern for some individuals.
"The risk is hard to define," he said. "I think avian flu is a concern for all of us, in terms of causing pandemic disease, even as it is right now, though there is not person-to-person transmission now."
Hayden said those traveling in affected areas should avoid interaction with poultry and practice good hygiene, among other precautions.
"So if students from U.Va. were planning to go and be in Indonesia for example, they should review the guides that have been recently published," Hayden said.
Though there are heightened concerns for avian flu, Murray said students should keep in mind the facts about the illness.
"I think that some of the information out there right now could be a little bit scary," she said. "There has been no human-to-human contact with the virus. We have had no worry in this country as far as I know. All the cases have been in Asia."
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