The Madison County Health Department is dedicated to the purpose of disease prevention and health promotion for all Madison County residents

News and Alerts

This sections designated for news and alerts.

 It’s not too late to vaccinate!!!!

 What is a novel virus?
A novel virus is one that has never before infected humans, or hasn’t infected humans for a long time. It’s likely that almost no one will have immunity to protect them from the novel H1N1 virus. Therefore, anyone exposed to the virus–young or old, healthy or weak–could become infected and get sick.

What’s the difference between Novel H1N1 and seasonal flu?
The virus that causes seasonal flu changes a little bit each year, but the changes are small. Getting a yearly flu vaccine helps to protect us from those small changes. The H1N1 flu virus is new and so different that many people, especially younger people, do not have much resistance. This is the reason why so many people got sick in the spring and we expect to see many more people, especially children, come down with the novel flu this season.