The annual flu clinic, staffed by TCU’s public health nursing students, will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday in the University Recreation Center.

The vaccine is free to all TCU faculty, staff and students with a valid TCU ID.

Prominent figures at TCU, like head football coach Gary Patterson, encouraged people to get the vaccine. In a YouTube video titled “TCU Flu Clinic 2013,” Patterson rallied students to “tackle the flu at TCU.”

While we are not in the heart of flu season just yet, it is approaching soon. The regular flu season usually begins in Texas sometime in mid to late October. There have already been reports of the flu in the DFW area and all over Texas, more so than in the northeastern states, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website.

According to the CDC website, everyone is susceptible to the flu, some more so than others. The website also says that everyone over the age of six months old should get the flu vaccination annually, with rare exceptions.

Those with asthma, heart disease, kidney and liver disorders, and people with a weakened immune system are at an elevated risk of contracting the flu, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services flu website.

The flu spreads from person to person. People who are infected with the flu can transmit it to other people who are as far as six feet away from them. Aside from person to person transmission, you can contract the flu by touching surfaces that have also been touched by people who are sick, according to the HHS flu website.

To cut down on the spreading of the virus, enact the precautions listed on the CDC’s website. The website cautions people to wash their hands often, to disinfect surfaces in their homes and to stay home for at least 24 hours if they are feeling flu-like symptoms.

For more information on how to prevent the flu, call the Health Center at (817)257-7940.