Researchers at the Scott & White Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine will vaccinate as many as 23,000 Temple/Belton-area school children against the flu starting Monday.

Part of a ground-breaking study conducted since 1998, this Vaccines for Influenza Prevention in Schools (VIPS) campaign offers flu immunizations at no charge to students, ages 4 and older, at their schools. Most children will receive FluMist®, the nasal spray vaccine, instead of a flu shot in the arm.

However, children who are not eligible to receive the FluMist® vaccine because of chronic illnesses may still participate in the study and receive a flu shot.

School staff will be offered flu vaccinations at no charge.

The study, Control of Epidemic Influenza, seeks to find a way to control community outbreaks of influenza.

Researchers are measuring the indirect effect, or “herd protection,” from vaccinating a majority of the school-age children in a community. They are investigating if such a vaccination program will reduce the spread of influenza.

“The results reported from previous years of this community-based study and other school-based studies have already led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make a new recommendation in 2008 that all school-age children get vaccinated against influenza,” said Dr. Manjusha Gaglani, the local principal investigator of the study and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Scott & White.

Students from the seven area school districts of Academy, Belton, Holland, Rogers, Salado, Temple and Troy can participate in this study and receive flu vaccinations at no charge.

It is expected that it will take until Thanksgiving to complete vaccinations, Gaglani said. The team will be going out to schools five days a week for the next 10 weeks.

A team of research staff will be visiting elementary, middle and high schools in the seven school districts. Parents can expect to receive study information and consent forms from the schools or by mail a few weeks before the vaccination team is scheduled to be at the school.

The completed forms need to be returned to the school. A schedule for the school vaccination days is available at www.stopflu.sw.org.

“This year we are able to expand flu vaccination to students in middle and high schools, more private schools, and home-schooled children in the VIPS campaign,” Gaglani said. “The flu vaccinations will be given during school hours for parents’ convenience. In return, we ask for the parents’ help filling out a short postage-paid postcard and sending it back to us six weeks later.”

School districts from the comparison area - Waco and Bryan-College Station - will supply student absenteeism statistics, as well as numbers of school nurse visits for flu-like illness by students, which will be used as part of the data for analysis.

Each year, scientists select three strains of flu to include in the vaccination.

This year’s strains are different from last year, Gaglani said.

Influenza virus surveillance will be performed to track flu outbreaks in the intervention and comparison areas. Doctor visits for acute respiratory illnesses will be compared from the Scott & White Health Plan.

According to the CDC, influenza is responsible for about 36,000 deaths each year. Infection rates and medical complications with the flu are greatest among young children and the elderly.

Recovering from the flu often requires several days, sometimes weeks. One family member with the flu may pass the infection on to other family members. Children spread the flu easily.

This study, begun in 1998, is the first of its kind to investigate whether large-scale immunization can aid in controlling epidemic influenza.