Vaccination against common flu strains are available to campus employees and students again this year, reports Trish Katje, projects coordinator at the Student Health Service (SHS). The first flu clinic was last week in Corwin Pavilion; others will be held at SHS on Thursday, Oct. 26, from 7:30 to 9 a.m., and continue every Thursday through Nov. 30, she says.

The cost will be $15 a shot, in cash or check, and Katje expects that the 1,500 doses on hand to be more than enough to cover likely demand. The inoculations help protect against the Malaysia, New Caledonia, and Wisconsin flu strains, but are not designed to protect against avian influenza strains.

In addition, clinics open to faculty and staff will be scheduled at locations around campus. Currently, three such clinics have been organized for Thursday, Oct. 26, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Cheadle Hall, room 1140; for Nov. 2, 9 to 11 a.m. in Davidson Library, fourth floor employees lounge; and on Nov. 8 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in Kohn Hall, room 1003.

Katje suggests that any office or department interested in a clinic should call her at x5768.

While flu clinics are a service SHS provides the entire campus, it has discontinued its diagnosis and treatment of work-related injuries for employees, according to an Oct. 9 memo from Dr. Elizabeth Downing, acting director of SHS. Injured employees, including student employees, who are not emergencies are to contact the Workers’ Compensation Program in Business Services at x8050.

Mari Tyrell-Simpson, manager of the program, says that the Web site <www.busserv.ucsb.edu> for the Business Services Office has most of the information employees will need to know before initiating a non-emergency doctor visit for an on-the-job injury. For the most part, such visits require pre-authorization, notes Tyrell-Simpson.

“We do not expect people to call us before the paramedics for true emergencies,” said Tyrell-Simpson. To help employees understand the difference, the short, Web-based “The UCSB Employee’s Guide to Workers’ Compensation” can be useful.