For the past five years, I’ve done an annual round-up for my “At the Airport” column on USAToday.com of airports where passengers can get a flu shot while they’re waiting for their flights. For a while there, the number of airports offering this service was increasing – last year I counted more that two dozen – but this year it won’t be so easy for health-conscious road warriors to get that flu shot on the fly.

After a several-year spike in availability, the trend of offering flu shots at U.S. airports seems to be waning.

While there are several cities where the flu vaccine is available at clinics on airport property or right nearby, as the accompanying chart shows, this year there are less than a dozen U.S. cities where travelers will be able to get immunized against this year’s strain of the flu inside an airport.

“The contracting process may have proved too onerous,” said Kent Vanden Oever, of the AirProjects consulting firm, “Or it may be that the number of flu shot outlets available to people has exploded in the last couple of years. It seems that every grocery store, drug store, etc. offers them now and not as many people require the convenience of getting them at the airport.”

At airports in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Miami and Las Vegas, the on-site clinics operated by AeroClinic and AirportMD that once offered flu shots are no longer open. Harmony Pharmacy, which in past years offered flu shots at health centers at JFK, SFO and Newark-Liberty airports, has shifted focus and now only sells health and beauty products at its airport locations.

And this year FLU*Ease, a company that for the past five years has set up and staffed many in-airport flu shot kiosks, isn’t even offering that service.

“Over the years, I’ve had kiosks at JFK, BOS, ORD, MDW, STL, DEN, LAX, TPA, CVG and SFO,” said FLU*Ease owner Jeff Butler, “We provided in excess of 60,000 shots annually. But last year business was down over 60 percent, with no explainable reason.”

It’s not that getting a flu shot is no longer important for travelers. “When you travel, you’re going to be exposed to many more people and potentially exposed to a wide variety of bugs that could cause infection” says Dr. Robert Wheeler, the medical director of On Call International, which provides medical and travel assistance for travelers, “So travelers do need to be concerned about flu this time of year.”

This year, travelers seeking flu shots at an airport will find them at kiosks inside the Louisville and San Diego airports and at the Carehere Walk-in Clinic and Wellness Store at Nashville International Airport. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the remaining (and original) AeroClinic is offering flu shots at both its atrium site and at several kiosks inside the airport. The clinics inside San Francisco International and Orlando International Airports are also offering flu shots, as are independent clinics located on airport property or right nearby Los Angeles, Boston, JFK and Honolulu airports.

At O’Hare International Airport, which seven years ago was the first airport to offer flu shot kiosks, the UIC O’Hare Urgent Care Center is once again offering flu shots in its clinic and at several temporary kiosks in the terminals. And while it takes ten to fourteen days for protection from a flu vaccine to kick in, clinic medical director John Zautcke says airport flu shot kiosks offer busy travelers the utmost in convenience. “There’s virtually no wait and it takes less than five minutes. We’ve done almost 3,000 flu shots this year already and expect to do another 1,000.”

Last week, Barbara Cohen of Bethesda, Md., and Donna Vobornik of Oak Park, Ill., were among the travelers who stopped to get their flu shots at one of the kiosks at O’Hare International Airport.

Cohen was heading back to Maryland after visiting her son at college in Chicago. “When I’m at the airport, I usually read or walk around,” said Cohen, “I really meant to get a flu shot this weekend and there was the stand. This is perfect. It’s as easy as it can get.”

Vobornik was on her way home from visiting her daughter, who is attending college in Miami. “It’s becoming an annual thing for me to get my flu shot at the airport,” said Vobornik, “This is my third year. I travel a lot for my job as a lawyer and sit next to a lot of sick people on a lot of flights. I’ll feel less worried now knowing that I have my shot.”

Ready for your flu shot? You can see a chart of airports offering flu shots this year at the bottom of my “Get your flu shot at the airport” column on USAToday.com.

Categories: Health
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Flu season is just around the corner and many airports around the country are, once again, doing their part to keep travelers healthy.

First to begin spreading the word: the San Diego International Airport.
They’re offering influenza, Tdap (to address the pertussis/whooping cough epidemic), Hepatitis A and B and other CDC-recommended vaccinations, for a fee, to ticketed passengers now through November 28 at two post-security locations in Terminal 1 East and West rotundas, Sunday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

I’m gathering details about other airports offering flu shots and other vaccinations this season, so if you see a kiosk set up at your airport, let me know.

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Every Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com, is Souvenir Sunday. The day we look at some of fun, local and inexpensive items you can pick up when you’re hanging around an airport.

But here’s something cheap – free, actually – you can pick at just about any airport that you’d be better off leaving behind: germs.

(MRSA Photo Credit: Janice Haney, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

In working on another topic for next week’s At the Airport column on USATODAY.com, I’ve been e-chatting with a podiatrist who has important advice for anyone heading to the airport wearing flip-flops or sandals: put on socks!

“When the TSA has every single person remove their shoes and stand barefoot in the same place where hundreds of prior people have, you create a scenario where infection has the potential to spread,” warns Dr. Nirenberg. “Persons with fungus, warts or bacterial infections are still told to remove footwear and these could be spread to people who have breaks or fissures in the skin of their feet.”

Ick!

Sure, you want to get through the security line quickly. But when you’re dressing to go to the airport wear put on some socks. If you forget and find yourself standing barefoot on that mat with the white foot outlines on it, your next stop should probably be an airport shop where you can buy yourself an inexpensive pair of souvenir socks.

Categories: Health, Safety, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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The news about the outbreak of a “super-toxic” strain of E. coli bacteria in Europe is terrible: at least 18 people killed so far and more than 1,600 sickened.

As I wrote on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, the culprit may be bacteria on cucumbers, lettuce and other salad ingredients, so just to be safe, American and some other airlines have decided to temporarily remove salads from menus on flights departing Europe.

“We are adjusting our menus out of Europe by eliminating leafy salads, lettuce and tomato garnishes and adding either a pasta salad or grapes,” said America Airline spokesperson Tim Smith. “We are replacing the salad menu items with other menu options to pre-empt any risk and alleviate concerns.”

The airline has alerted travelers to this action with a notice on its website, which also states:

“We will closely monitor and take direction from the local health authorities and the World Health Organization and return to the original menu when we believe it is safe to do so.”

Other airlines, and the companies that prepare in-flight meals for airlines, are also making menu changes.

Lufthansa Airlines spokesperson Martin Riecken said after the May 25 warning from the German Robert-Koch institute about eating cucumbers, salads and tomatoes in North Germany, LSG Sky Chefs, the company that prepares in-flight meals for Lufthansa and 300 other airlines, “initiated preventive action to adjust its meal production in Germany.”

The company stopped the use of raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and is providing substitute products for meals on flights out of Germany until mid-June.

Delta Air Lines spokesperson Chris Kelly Singley said the airline is monitoring the situation, but “at this time, Delta is not pulling salads from our flights departing Europe.”

And I’m waiting to hear back again from a representative at Gate Gourmet, which on its website boasts 270-plus customers at 120 airport locations around the globe.

Their written statement to me at the end of the day didn’t say whether or not any of their airline customers had changed their menus in response to the E. coli scare, only that:

“We are monitoring very closely what the European and global regulatory agencies are reporting and working with our customers to quickly implement alternate suppliers, if necessary.”

Categories: Air Travel, Food, Health
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Every Sunday here at  StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday: a day to unpack our carry-on and take a look at some of the fun, inexpensive goodies you can find for sale at airports.

This week’s souvenirs come from San Francisco International Airport, which is getting to ready to open the new and very much improved Terminal 2 to the flying public.  They will be a grand opening celebration for T2 on April 9th (anyone can go, but you’ll need to sign up for a free ticket). Virgin America and American Airlines begin using the terminal for regular flights on April 14th.

I’ve already posted a sneak preview of the terminal. See SFO T2 sneak peek -Part 1 and SFO T2 sneak peek part 2 - and check back later for more.

When I visited the new T2, the shops were not yet open, so I wandered over to the SFO International Terminal to see what I could find.  Sadly, the Sephora store is gone, but Freshen Up! is still there.

Located right next door to the Airport Travel Agency (on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal, near the entrance to Gates G91-G102) and open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., this no-frills spot offers shower rooms, massage chairs, a place to iron your clothes and a wide variety of travel-sized items at surprisingly reasonable prices. 

In addition to things like toothpaste, diapers, shaving cream and other sundries they also stock underwear, socks, shirts, pantyhose and other items travelers might find useful when they’re stuck at the airport on a long layover or while waiting for that delayed flight.

A 20 minute shower at Freshen Up! will cost you $11. A 30-minute “deluxe” shower is $15 and includes shampoo, lotion, shower shoes a towel and nice soap. Store your bags at the travel agency next door and they’ll give you a coupon good for an upgrade from the standard to the deluxe shower.

Now that you’re clean – go shopping!

And if you see a great airport souvenir that’s inexpensive, ‘of’ the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, I’ll send you a special travel souvenir.

Categories: Airport shops, Airports, Art, Baggage, Exhibits, Health, Layover, Massages, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, Stuck at the Airport
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