News release: Colorado - Denver/Boulder

September 27, 2004

For more information, call:
Jacque Murphy Montgomery
Kaiser Permanente, Media Relations Coordinator
Phone: (303) 344-7410
E-mail: Jacque.Montgomery@kp.org

Thousands receive flu protection at Kaiser Permanente's free shot clinic

Denver, CO – Kaiser Permanente held its first of two free flu shot clinics Saturday, Sept. 25, 2004 and more than 36,500 Kaiser Permanente members rolled up their sleeves to be among the first to receive flu shots this season.

Influenza is a highly contagious illness that is spread from person-to-person, primarily from coughing and sneezing. Last year, flu hit Colorado early and hard. Now is the time to get your flu shot to protect yourself through flu season.

"The best way to protect yourself from getting the flu is to get a flu shot," said Kaiser Permanente chief of preventive medicine Eric France, MD.

All of the Kaiser Permanente medical offices in the Denver/Boulder/Longmont metro areas held flu shot clinics except the Boulder medical offices. Several clinics including Franklin, Westminster and Denver East offered the popular "drive-up" flu shot, where people rolled down their windows, rolled up their sleeves and received a flu shot without ever leaving their car. A second flu shot clinic will be held Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004.

Kaiser Permanente recommends flu shots for all people over 50, but particularly for those considered at high risk. People who are considered high-risk are those who are 60 and older, children between 6 months and 23 months old and their adult caretakers, persons with diseases of the heart and lungs including asthma, persons with diabetes, health care workers and women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Influenza in a typical flu season can cause on average 36, 000 deaths in the United States and 200,000 hospitalizations.

Kaiser Permanente is a non-profit health plan and the largest private health care provider in Colorado. For the second year in a row, it is rated among the top ten accredited health care organizations in the country for clinical quality by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Kaiser Permanente cares for more than 416,000 members in the Denver/Boulder and Colorado Springs areas. Kaiser Permanente physicians and care teams focus on prevention as well as curing disease, all in an effort to help patients live well and thrive.