Flu 2013: University of Iowa Prepares for Flu-mageddon, Iowa Residents Rank High In Flu Shot Percentage

University of Iowa students are returning next week. And that can mean only one thing.

Flu-mageddon.

Or at least that's what the university is working hard to prevent from happening, as students converge on the town ready to swap diseases such as the flu, writes Tara Bannow of the Press-Citizen:

A campus bio-emergency response team was activated last week for the first time since the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 to assess UI’s preparedness for a deluge of flu cases.

“We’ve heard reports that other Big Ten campuses are seeing a lot of influenza,” said Loreen Herwaldt, a Carver College of Medicine professor who specializes in infectious disease. “When you have a lot of people together in close quarters, something like influenza can be transmitted fairly easily.”

As I wrote about yesterday, the University of Iowa is offering a specific flu health page, with flu tips and exhortations for students to go get their flu shot.

Speaking of vaccination, the state of Iowa can apparently hold its head high in this regard, reports Cindy Hadish of the Gazette.

In the report released Tuesday, Jan. 15, the Trust for America’s Health noted that 75.9 percent of seniors were vaccinated in Iowa, more than any other state and well above Alaska’s rate of 49.5 percent, which ranked last.

Data was from the 2011-2012 flu season, but Iowa often reports high vaccination levels.

So join in the fun and get a flu vaccine everyone. And wash those hands.