Stick that stops flu: Health department offers curbside shots Oct. 1

Published 9:38 am Monday, September 17, 2018

 

By Ken Stickney

ken.stickney@panews.com

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

Don’t even open that car door.

Roll down your window, roll up your sleeve and with a quick stick, you’ll have your flu shot for this season.

Judith Smith, director of health services for Port Arthur City Health Department, said her staff will take to the streets from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 1 to administer curbside flu shots during the Drive Thru Flu Clinic at 449 Austin Ave., the site of the former Capitol One building.

If the sun shines, business will be brisk. But even if it rains, she said, the health department crew will soldier on.

The health department has been providing a drive-up service day annually since 2006, with the exception of 2017 after Hurricane Harvey, when services were moved indoors. The cost is $10, and only adults — 18 and older — will be served.

Smith said in 2016, the health department gave some 200 to 250 shots on the curbside service day.

“But it has been way more than that in the past,” she said. “I look for this year to be big.”

 

2017: Tough year

 

That’s because 2017-18 proved to be an “eventful” year for flu. Reports of flu started as early as mid-September; some years it lasts as long as May.

“We had so many reports of flu,” she said of 2017-18. Although her department is not mandated to report flu cases, she said area schools and some private providers reported to her office anyway.

She said the spread of flu nationwide was memorable last year. Eighty-two children died from complications related to influenza, she said. That’s why everywhere she and her departments go, they encourage people to get the shot.

She said the health department orders about 1,200 shots, 500 for children and does not reorder. That’s because the shots are available elsewhere. The department will continue to give the shots indoors, 8-4:30, after that one curbside day.

 

Students help

 

Students in health care or nursing programs from Port Arthur ISD, Lamar State College Port Arthur and Lamar University help the health department administer shots. Some people are assigned to make sure patients have their cars in park.

“You don’t want anyone to get a shot with their foot on accelerator,” she said.

 

Better than nothing

 

She said there are some misconceptions about flu shots. For example, she said some people insist that the shots give them the flu rather than prevent it. But Smith said those who come down with the flu after receiving a shot were likely exposed to the flu before they got the shot or during the two-week period that it takes for the flu shot to become fully effective.

She also said in some years, she hears complaints that the flu shot administered is less than fully effective for the specific variety of flu that becomes prevalent.

“Last year, people said the shot was only 30 percent effective. But it’s better to have 30 percent working than 100 percent not working,” she said.

She said seniors and children are most vulnerable to the flu, but added that, “No one has full immunity.”

Everyone in Port Arthur, though, has the chance to more immune to the flu. Just drive up to the curb Oct. 1, roll down your window, roll up your sleeve.

 

 

Just the facts

 

Who: Port Arthur Health Department

What: Curbside flu shots for the public

When: 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 1

Where: 400 block of Austin Avenue downtown. Turn right on Procter Street at Austin, which is one-way during this event.

Why: To help ward off the flu during the 2018-19 season

How much: $10