MAYVILLE Students and eligible staff at Ripley Central School received their H1N1 "swine flu" vaccination Monday in the county's first school-located clinic. "About two-thirds of the school population turned out for immunization. School staff, students, and their parents were wonderful the clinic went very smoothly and was a huge success. This was a tremendous start to our H1N1 vaccination campaign," said Chautauqua County Public Health Director Christine Schuyler.

County Executive Greg Edwards voiced his gratitude for the work of Health Department staff and the collaboration shown in the county.

"Once again, Chautauqua County has taken the lead in providing locally for our residents this was the first school clinic in Western New York," Edwards said. "I would like to thank our health department, county school districts and health care providers for working diligently and patiently together to reduce the spread of influenza and keep our children healthy.

The next school-located clinic is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12 & 13 at Silver Creek but will depend on vaccine quantity.

"Ripley was the first school district we drew from a bowl filled with school district names at the Health Department," Schuyler said. "This was truly the only fair way we could agree upon to determine clinic order," she added. Parents can expect to hear when a clinic will take place at their school from their school district as soon as details are available. Vaccine information, consent forms and other documents and details will be sent home with school children for parental review and signature.

"Influenza is very active throughout the county. Given that the H1N1 (swine flu) virus is the strain currently in circulation, it's safe to assume that the influenza activity we're seeing is H1N1," Schuyler said.

Health officials are not routinely testing residents for H1N1 so no accurate numbers are available on how many residents have been infected. Reports of illness and absenteeism have increased in Chautauqua County just as they have across the state.

"It's imperative that people stay home when sick with flu-like illness and remain home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone without fever-reducing medication. Keeping away from others as much as possible and using good hand and respiratory hygiene will help stop the spread of illness," Schuyler said.

Shipments of limited amounts of the H1N1 vaccine were received in October and health officials are hopeful that increased amounts of vaccine will become available in November. Parents, pregnant women and others in the H1N1 flu vaccine priority populations should begin scheduling appointments with their doctors to have themselves or their children vaccinated when supplies become available. As adequate amount of H1N1 vaccine arrives, the health department will continue scheduling school-located vaccination clinics.

County residents with questions or concerns related to seasonal and H1N1 influenza should call 2-1-1. The public can also obtain more information about swine flu and precautionary measures at NYSDOH's web site at www.nyhealth.gov or at the CDC's flu Web site at www.flu.gov.