Vaccination rates steady in first year of FluMist offering

This is consistent with FluFests in the last several years, when roughly 5,000 students and staff were vaccinated. Last year, however, only 4,689 vaccinations were administered by UHS. Immunizations were free for students, faculty and staff, while dependents were charged $30.

FluMist contains a live, weakened form of the influenza virus. Though the virus is live, “infection is unlikely to result in influenza illness symptoms since the vaccine viruses have not been shown to mutate into typical or naturally occurring influenza viruses,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Since the virus contained in the FluMist has been modified only to survive in cool temperatures, such as those found within the nose, the hot temperatures found in the lungs destroy it. This modification safeguards against the flu virus infecting lung cells — which happens during a normal flu infection — but allows the immune system to come into contact with and remember protein markers that are identical in the weakened and natural forms. With this stored information, the immune system can usually quickly destroy a copy of that season’s virus before the virus multiplies enough to cause infection.

FluMist relies on the same memory mechanism that the traditional flu shot does, though the traditional vaccine contains a killed virus, according to the CDC website. When white blood cells come into contact with virus that has been injected into the blood stream, they are able to recognize the virus as non-self, remember the protein markers specific to the virus and stave off infections.

Pauline Ndambuki ’12 said she opted for the flu shot over FluMist because she was used to getting vaccinated that way.

Other vaccinations with a live virus include the smallpox vaccination, which is a live strain of the vaccinia virus, also known as cowpox, according to the CDC website. The administration site of the smallpox vaccine must be carefully monitored so that the live virus does not spread or cause infection.

Sixty-two students were treated for the flu at McCosh in 2007-08, and 138 students were treated the year before, according to UHS statistics. Runkle emphasized, however, that these figures do not represent the total number of students who were diagnosed with the flu since some students seek treatment elsewhere.

Though people who receive a vaccine are more than 90 percent more likely to avoid a bout with the flu in the coming winter than those who remain unvaccinated, according to one study cited by the CDC, it is necessary to be vaccinated each year to avoid infection. The flu virus is able to mutate so quickly that its protein markers significantly change from one flu season to the next, leaving the immune system unable to quickly attack the virus.