Imperial College Health Centre

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Vaccinations for Students

ARE YOU VACCINATED?

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL All students under 25yrs of age

FREE VACCINATIONS FOR STUDENTS

The current recommendation is that if you are up to and including 24years of age, you should have had TWO mumps vaccinations and ONE Meningitis C vaccination.

Meningococcal disease (meningitis) and Mumps

Both meningococcal disease (meningitis) and mumps are serious diseases: meningococcal meningitis can kill and mumps can damage fertility. Fortunately both are rare, but they DO occur, and they occur more commonly amongst university students. It is STRONGLY recommended that you are immunised against these prior to coming to university.

Vaccinations

NHS AGE LIMIT	The NHS provides free immunisation against mumps and meningitis C for those up to and including 24years of age, which is the age group most at risk. If you are 25yrs or older you are not eligible to have these vaccinations for free in the UK.
HAVE THEM BEFORE YOU COME	The vaccinations take several weeks to work therefore we strongly recommend you arrange them before coming to university. If you leave it until you arrive we will offer you the vaccinations, but you will be at increased risk of infection for the first few weeks of term. In some countries you may have to pay for these vaccinations. Do not put yourself at risk by delaying vaccination until your arrival in the UK.
CHECK YOUR RECORDS	Please make every attempt to find out which vaccinations you have already had to avoid needing a repeat injection. Ask your current GP practice nurse if necessary. Please note it takes several months for us to obtain your GP notes when you register therefore we cannot check for you. Where there is doubt we will always suggest (re)vaccination.
MUMPS IMMUNISATION	You need to have had TWO mumps vaccinations (ever). In the UK this is usually given as part of the MMR vaccine. HOWEVER many UK-born university students will only have had one MMR vaccine as a child (it was introduced relatively recently).
MENIGITIS C IMMUNISATION	You need to have had ONE meningitis C vaccination (ever). Please note that this is NOT the meningitis vaccination usually given for travel purposes. Although the vaccination does dramatically reduce the risk of meningococcal disease, it is still possible to get meningitis. All students should be aware of the signs of meningitis and what do if they think someone may have it.

Our Vaccination Clinics

If you are unable to obtain the necessary vaccinations prior to your arrival at College it is very important that you attend the Health Centre to do so as soon as possible. The risk of infection is greatest in the first few weeks of term.

In the first week of term we run WALK-IN VACCINATION CLINICS where no appointment is necessary:

Sunday 2nd October 2011	Monday 3rd October 2011	Tuesday 4th October 2011	Wednesday 5th October 2011	Thursday 6th October 2011
11:30 - 15:30	17:00 - 18:30	14:00 - 16:00 and 17:00 - 18:30	14:00 - 16:00 and 17:00 - 18:30	17:00 - 18:30

Wednesday 12th October 2011		Wednesday 19th October 2011		Wednesday 26th October 2011
14:00 - 16:00		14:00 - 16:00		14:00 - 16:00

There are also limited number of vaccination appointments available at other times in the first week of term, and throughout the whole year, by appointment only.