Starting in October, the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department will host four flu shot clinics for convenient dates and locations to get vaccinated.

The clinics are available to Muskingum County residents 3 years-old and up.

During the 2017 flu clinics hosted by ZMCHD, 1,381 vaccines were administered to community members. Although in 2017 there were five clinics compared to this year’s four, each clinic averaged about 276 vaccines.

“It’s the first and foremost way to prevent the flu,” Tiffany McFee, the Director of Communicable Disease Prevention at ZMCHD said.

McFee added that the flu does not seem like a big deal to people in good health, but it can be life-threatening to infants, elderly people and anyone with a weakened immune system.

She encourages everyone to get a flu shot to prevent contracting and spreading the flu to other community members.

Although the flu clinics only serve children ages 3 years old and older, McFee encourages parents to vaccinate their children as young as 6 months old at their primary care physician’s office.

The Health Department recommends people print a flu vaccine consent form from www.ZMCHD.org for quicker service at the flu clinic. Patients are also encouraged to bring a photo identification and their insurance card to cover the cost of the vaccination.

ZMCHD accepts most insurances at the flu clinics, and McFee said it’s just to cover the cost of the vaccinations to allow the health department to continue flu clinics each year.

Clinic dates, times and locations are as follows:

• October 2 at the Perry Township Fire Department from 2 to 6 p.m. This is a drive-thru clinic only.
• October 13 at the Southtown Gym on Maysville Avenue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is both a drive-thru and a walk-in clinic.
• October 19 at Zane State College, Advanced Science and Technology Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is both a drive-thru and a walk-in clinic.
• October 23 at the Dresden Fire Department from 2 to 6 p.m. This is both a drive-thru and a walk-in clinic.