While Halloween brings out ghosts, zombies, and other terrors, there’s one horror that also comes creeping this time of year: the flu season.

Guthrie County Public Health Director Jotham Arber recommends that everyone aged six months and older get an annual flu vaccine by the end of October. Arber says it takes about two weeks after vaccination for the antibodies that protect against flu to develop in the body. He says flu activity is currently low, but it’s lingering close to home, “There have been six confirmed cases so far in the State of Iowa and in Guthrie County we haven’t seen any specific cases but it’s right around the corner. The cases that we’re seeing are happening in Des Moines, Dallas County so we are on ‘high alert’ so to speak and we’re out there doing a lot of flu clinics. We have flu clinics available here and really gearing up to get as many people vaccinated as we can.”

Arber says the department has already held flu vaccine clinics at all of the county’s school districts, and have provided them to local businesses and community groups. A new service public health is offering this year is providing in-home flu shots, if a resident is unable to leave their home. Residents can also go to the health services building on Thursdays to get the vaccine with no appointment needed from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Arber also mentions that the flu shot can be provided by your personal physician, at any medical clinic, and at many drug stores.