The Memorial Health Center will not be able to offer any fluvaccines this semester due to lack of availability.

The United States expected a record 100 million doses of fluvaccine. But on Tuesday, British regulators unexpectedly shut downa major supplier of the vaccine, Chiron Corp. The shut down hasheld up 46 million doses at the British factory. Manufacturingproblems apparently led to the contamination of a portion of thosedoses.

All vaccines destined for the Memorial Health Center were tohave come from Chiron.

Dr. Nancy Merrill, the co-medical director of the health center,encourages all students to get flu shots when they go home in theupcoming weeks. She said female freshman planning on attendingPanhellenic recruitment in January will be especially susceptibleto the virus and should try extra-hard to get a vaccine.

“It’s awful,” she said. “You’rerunning from party to party in cold weather, in each other’sfaces, not washing your hands… We’re absolutely inundatedwith cases in January.”

Cheryl Black, the director of nursing, said she feels”horrible” students will be unable to be vaccinated oncampus. “We will have the flu on this campus —it’s guaranteed. Students will have to take extra precautionsto stay healthy,” she said.

To avoid this problem next year, directors at the health centerplan on ordering half the vaccines from Aventis Pasteur, anothervaccine producer. Merrill said she knows the solution is notespecially cost-effective but emphasized the health center cannotsuffer the same loss next year.

The Memorial Health Center works with Dallas Country Health andHuman Services as a virus-testing site to prepare upcoming vaccinesat no extra cost to students.

According to Black, staff members at the health center focus onlive viral cultures to isolate the current organisms causing thisyear’s outbreak. The center then sends as many cultures aspossible to Dallas County Health and Human Services to beanalyzed.