Brookhaven citizens filtered through a local pharmaceutical andretail business parking lot Tuesday afternoon to prepare for thisyear’s flu season.

“I can’t watch,” admitted Joy Bowman, of Brookhaven, as shereceived her shot at Walgreens.

Bowman, her son and her mother all took advantage of the earlyflu clinic at the drug store to get vaccinated against the virus.They try to get vaccinated every year, she said.

Brandie Bankston, of Raymond, a nurse with Maxim Health Care whowas contracted by the retail outlet to provide the service, saidapproximately 100 doses of the vaccine were given Tuesday.

“We’re usually one of the first to get the vaccine and holdclinics,” she said. “It’s been steady since I got here.”

Liz Sharlot, public relations officer for the Mississippi StateDepartment of Health, said local branch offices of the agencyshould begin providing the service soon. The agency only recentlyreceived its first shipment of the vaccine and it is expecting todistribute it within a few days, she said.

“We are starting to get our flu vaccine in. It will be coming inby increments over the next few weeks and shipments will bedistributed upon arrival,” Sharlot said.

Peggy May, a health information clerk at the Mississippi StateDepartment of Health’s Brookhaven office, said the local center hasnot yet received any flu vaccine.

The health department has ordered an amount it believessufficient to meet the state’s demands, but can order more ifnecessary, Sharlot said.

“There will be no shortage of vaccine,” she said, citingassurances by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Clay Hammack, a district health officer for the healthdepartment, said flu vaccinations typically begin around this timeeach year. The peak flu season varies each year, he said, buttypically runs from December to February in Mississippi.

“We generally start our vaccination program in October and itwill run through February usually,” he said. “Sometimes (the peakseason) is a little earlier and sometimes a bit later.”

Programs are started prior to the beginning of the seasonbecause flu vaccinations are a preventative measure and cannot beused to offset an existing viral infection, Hammack said.

“It usually takes about two weeks to build up immunity oncevaccinated,” Hammack said. “Once you have the influenza virus, thevaccination will not modify that illness in any way.”

There is a perception among some that taking the flu vaccinewill give them the flu, he said, but it’s not true. Vaccines useddead viruses.

Typically, when a person gets vaccinated and then gets the fluone of two things has occurred, he said. Either a person wasalready sick and the vaccine did not have the two weeks it needs toraise the body’s immunity system to the virus or the personreceived a variant of the flu virus not included in the vaccinepackage.

The decision as to what variants of the flu virus to include inthe vaccine is determined in the spring for the fall and winterseason because of the time constraints to manufacture the vaccine.Sometimes, he said, an unexpected variant of the virus will emergein a region that has not been included in the vaccine, leavingpeople unprepared for exposure to it.

“As far as I know, right now the match looks pretty good,”Hammack said. “We haven’t had many cases yet this year to compareto.”

Aside from vaccinations, there are several easy steps people canpersonally take to lower the risk of catching influenza, he said.Washing hands frequently, not touching noses or mouths with barehands and covering your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezingcan help achieve that goal.

Also, he said, people displaying symptoms of the flu should notmingle with others or go to work. That will lower the risk ofspreading the virus.

“These are some of the common sense kind of things that you cando,” Hammack said.