Special thanks to: Dr. Raghu Venugopal, Emergency Physician; Dr. Isaac Bogoch, Staff Physician, Divisions of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases; Carol Scovil, Knowledge Mobilization Specialist and Rehabilitation Engineer in the Spinal Cord Injury Rehab Program (TR); Marilyn Burbidge, Medical Imaging Decision Support Co-ordinator; Dr. Korosh Khalili, Abdominal Radiologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Cancer Clinical Research Unit; Dr. Brian Hodges, EVP Education; Kwang-Soon Jeon, Critical Care Nurse at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC); Edith Ng, Occupational Therapist at the Acquired Brain Injury Program (TR); and Dr. RJ Cusimano, Cardiovascular Surgeon, PMCC. (Credit: UHNToronto YouTube)
Today is the day, UHN! The annual flu shot campaign has begun.
This year, every time a UHN staff member receives a flu shot, they will contribute to two initiatives that UHN is spearheading through UNICEF Canada.
- For every one flu shot received by a UHN staff member, we will donate one essential vaccine to a child in a developing country.
- For every 50 flu shots received by UHN staff, we will donate a five-month supply of clean water by providing 73 water purification tablets.
Where do I get my flu shot?
Please see the schedule for the flu carts at each site:
Promoting prevention
When you get your flu vaccine, you're helping protect yourself, your family, our patients and our staff.
In addition, when you receive the flu shot at our flu carts, you will also receive one full-sized chocolate bar.
All staff, physicians, volunteers and students are eligible to win two prizes during this year's flu campaign:
Contest one: To be eligible for one big prize at the end of the campaign, take a selfie of you receiving the flu shot, tweet it using the hashtag #EveryFluShotCounts and tag @UHN_News. The winner will be announced at the end of the campaign. If you don't have Twitter, you can still enrol in this contest by e-mailing the photo to
social@uhn.ca and we'll tweet your selfie for you!
Contest two: After receiving your flu shot at the flu cart, complete a flu draw form. This enrols in you a weekly random draw for gift cards to shopping centres such as Sherway, Fairview, Yorkdale, Don Mills and Square One.
Review & protect against the flu
Influenza is one of the top 10 infectious diseases in Ontario. While most healthy adults feel miserable for a few days, for some people, influenza can be serious or life-threatening.
Those most at risk include:
- Adults age 65 and over
- Residents of long-term care facilities
- Pregnant women
- Children under the age of five
- People who are obese
- People who are immune-compromised
- People with chronic medical conditions, including asthma, heart disease, and diabetes, among others.
Each year in Ontario, influenza and other respiratory viruses along with their complications are estimated to cause up to 1,000 hospitalizations and 1,600 deaths.
Complications include pneumonia, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections. Influenza and other respiratory virus infections can also make chronic conditions, such as asthma, worse.
Decades of experience suggest that the influenza vaccine is, on average, 60 per cent effective in preventing infection in healthy adults. Evidence also shows that even if a person gets influenza after being vaccinated, their illness will be less severe. Although the vaccine is not perfect, getting immunized is one of the best ways available to prevent influenza infection.
This year, when you receive the flu vaccine, you will be improving the health and safety of others here and abroad.
Getting the flu vaccine at UHN will help protect yourself, your family and our patients, and will help children around the world by providing essential vaccines and access to clean water.
Let's make every shot count, UHN.
