State Leaders Prepare for H1N1 With Summit This Week

Health, education and public safety officials will meet later this week in Frankfort for a Pandemic Influenza Summit organized by the state government.State epidemiologist Dr. Kraig Humbaugh says the novel H1N1 flu strain hit earlier this year, and they used to track cases by getting information from each county. But now they monitor H1N1 much in the same way they do seasonal flu, by tracking cases on a state level with the use of some partners in the health field.“Normally, they just do that during the winter season, when our traditional flu hits," saus Humbaugh, "but this year, we asked them to extend that throughout the summer, so they’ve been doing that throughout the summer as well.”Attendees to the summit Thursday will learn more about tracking the virus, as well as a new vaccine that should be ready in October.