Hospitals and clinics have begun dispensing flu vaccine, and hundreds of Hawai'i schoolchildren will be immunized in the next few weeks as health officials wonder how badly the Islands will be hit by the flu this season.

"We've been lucky to have mild flu seasons for the past three years, so it's possible we could be in for a bad flu season," said Dr. Sarah Park, deputy chief for the state Health Department's disease outbreak control division. "There are definitely reports of cases of flu in the community. But it's still too early to tell what the flu season is going to do."

A small, undisclosed private school on O'ahu suffered the first confirmed flu outbreak in August, marking an unusually early start to this year's flu season.

Health officials so far haven't seen large numbers of flu cases since. But Park cautioned that the flu season in Hawai'i typically doesn't hit hard until December.

"It doesn't mean we're out of the woods," she said.

Dr. Cynthia Nakasato, a pediatrician in the Waipi'o Kaiser clinic, last night saw an 8-year-old girl with a positive flu test who came in after a "sudden onset of fever, headache, muscle ache — the classical flu that hits you all at one time."

"It is definitely in our community," Nakasato said. Kaiser is encouraging its employees to get their flu shots and Nakasato said, "I better get mine."

On Oct. 15, state health officials will begin offering flu vaccine for the first time to every private- and public-school student from kindergarten through middle school in a new program called "Stop Flu at School."

Hawai'i expects to have 115,000 flu shots or nasal spray vaccines to dispense to 90 percent of all eligible children because full participation isn't expected.

Francis Park, a 53-year-old print shop owner from 'Ewa Beach, gladly received his shot yesterday during a doctor's visit to Kaiser's Honolulu clinic because "I like to feel safe."

"Last year, I felt real strong after I got the shot," Park said after his injection. "I definitely feel like this will help."

Elsie Chang, a retired teletype operator from Kamehameha Heights, has gotten her flu shot each of the past 14 years and didn't even wince when she received her vaccine yesterday.

"I don't want to get the flu, that's why I get my shot every year," Chang said. "Some people refuse to take it. They say they don't trust it. Not me."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.