Health fair targets flu season

Pharmacy students in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences will help the Northeastern community prepare for the flu season by offering free vaccines at the college’s seventh annual Health Fair and Flu Clinic on Wednesday. The fair will also feature free health screenings, giveaways, and a blood drive.

Phi Delta Chi, the professional fraternity of the School of Pharmacy, will manage the event, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Curry Student Center indoor quad and ballroom.

“The main goal of the event is to help get as many Northeastern students, faculty, and staff vaccinated against the flu,” said fair chair Erica Diamantides, a doctoral student of pharmacy. About 2,500 people attended last year’s fair, during which more than 1,100 flu vaccines were administered.

Traditional flu shots as well as the mist form of the vaccine will be offered, according to Mark Douglass, an associate clinical professor of pharmacy and Phi Delta Chi’s faculty adviser. Faculty as well as students in the nursing, pharmacy, and physician assistant programs will administer the vaccines, which will be provided by the University Health and Counseling Services.

“All three programs will be working together side by side,” Douglass said.

In addition to the free flu shots, Brigham and Women’s Hospital will sponsor a blood drive in the ballroom and a score of student groups will man tables at the indoor quad. The student groups will promote a range of health and wellness information, from breast cancer awareness and STI prevention to healthy eating at Northeastern’s dining halls. The first 250 people who visit three tables will get a free water bottle.

The fair’s health screenings, meanwhile, will allow people to check their cholesterol levels and bone density, as well as test their speech and hearing. Another test will reveal whether participants play their music too loud on their portable media players.

For more information, email Erica Diamntides at diamantides.e@husky.neu.edu.