This year's flu vaccine does not specifically target avian influenza, but the vaccine includes some components that may help provide immunity or help limit the mixing of flu virus strains, UC Davis physicians Tom Ferguson and Mike O'Malley say.

"Will it help? We don't know," said Ferguson, medical director of the Student Health Center. "But it ain't gonna hurt."

O'Malley, director of Employee Health Services, explained that this year's vaccine fights the N1 antigen in H5N1 influenza, or avian flu, but not H5.

Nevertheless, he said, the vaccine can keep people from getting other types of flu — including those that can be transmitted from person to person. Avian flu has not done that so far.

But, if avian flu infects someone with a different kind of flu, one that can spread from person to person, the two kinds of flu could mix. "Then you have a problem," O'Malley said.

The government is working on a vaccine to specifically target avian flu. If one were to become available, Ferguson said, UC Davis has the capability of running a successful clinic for mass inoculations. In June 2004, health workers from campus and elsewhere took part in a vaccination drill during which some 300 students and people from the community acted as patients.

"That same scenario would work for distribution of preventive medicine, too," he said.

Ferguson advised that the Student Health Center still has a supply of flu vaccine for students. O'Malley said employees should see their own health care providers.