A Comic Book on Swine Flu? Adults, get Ready!

Even though the Swine Flu outbreak of earlier this year caused raised levels of awareness and concern among many, and resulted in several tragic deaths, many in the public have put it out of their minds until now, the return of the back to school season. As concern over the illness climbs again, one major American city, Seattle, Washington, is taking steps to help educate the public on health and safety against the virus. The Seattle-King County Health Department, according to Anne Shields, director of community and school partnerships for the department, has announced that they will release a comic book for parents to use in educating their children on flu symptoms and ways to be knowledgeable about taking care of themselves to prevent flu. Parents, students and school leadership have been pleased with the idea of this kind of public education. "The main thing was to get information communicated out to families as quickly as possible and to make sure they knew the preventative steps," said David Tucker, the spokesman for Seattle Public Schools. This move is similar to one done in India, where officials there helped to produce a comic book in local schools about the dangers of malaria. The comic books in Seattle were created in the primary languages spoken in homes there as well as being written in clear language, understandable for most adults.