Low turnout at H1N1 meeting

APPLETON - With the first month of school nearly in the books, health officials are preparing for what's expected to be busy flu season. Representatives from the school district and the health department held a meeting for parents to talk about the H1N1 virus.

"I just want to get fully educated on it and see what's going on," Appleton resident Vera Arnopol said. She came out to learn more about the virus and the plan to deal with it.

"It's is a concern in the fact that my kids go to the schools and I do work at the hospital. So I hear a lot of talk about it," Arnopol said.

Arnopol was one of about a dozen parents who came out for the meeting. Appleton health officer Kurt Eggebrecht said so far, the H1N1 is acting like the seasonal flu, but there are some major differences.

"Seasonal influenza typically impacts the elderly and the very young and pregnant women," Eggebrecht said. "With the H1N1 we're seeing more school-aged children and ages zero to four."

Eggebrecht also said pandemics like H1N1 don't come all at once.

"It'll come and you'll see increases in incidences in your community then those case rates with go down only to be followed by another wave of the virus," Eggebrecht said.

Yvette Dunlap from the Appleton Area School District said the district is monitoring children who have been absent from school. The district is also keeping in close contact with the health department.

"I think anytime there's an illness that affects a large segment of the population it's important to have the most current information and to share that out with the key people that need to have that," Dunlap said.

In this case, that means parents.