Update: 2009 Swine Flu

Sunday, August 30, 2009

H1N1 - Information and Links You can Use

This is an update on H1N1 / swine flu along with sites with authoritative information and some cool graphs and charts.


The information here builds on prior unbossed work, including a two-parter on H1N1, examining the science of understanding the likely path and virulence of this variety of flu in Impure Thoughts on Pure Science - Lessons from 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu. Part 1 and information gleaned from the 1918 influenza pandemic - Impure Thoughts on Pure Science - Lessons from 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu. Part 2.

Those stories included information on the disease's virulent attack on the lungs as also being a marker of the pandemic 1918 flu. In addition, an announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) in the last couple days states that a similar pattern is now being seen with H1N1.

One unbossed theme has been health, related to pandemics and, increasingly, influenza. Past stories on influenza are aggregated here and stories on pandemics are here.


Useful sites

Information on Symptoms

Canada has a summary of symptoms, including identifying those that are very serious and how to respond.

What is special about the current Swine Flu

More information on the nature of the disease can be found in a July CIDRAP report.
Information on the spread of H1N1

Here is an update from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is keeping track of the spread of H1N1 in a number of ways. For example, it is producing colour-coded maps to show its geographic spread.

You will see some red hot spots for the Aug. 10-16 map, but most of the map is grey - meaning no data is available - including substantial parts of Europe. China and Russia and nearby areas are white - for "no activity". The US is grey, as is Canada, Africa, and Australia, just to name a few places, while New Zealand is a red hotspot - meaning "widespread".

With so much grey and white blanks, we can only speculate. However, we have data among far flung locations, and among those reporting in, the most common color is red. It seems likely, then, that a large part of the world is red, including the US.

In other words, if Mexico is red, how can the US not be? We can safely assume that H1N1 is circulating among us and it is useful to have authoritative information.


Here are particularly useful sites for updates and information.

CDC, H1N1 Monitoring Questions & Answers and general information.

This unofficial Animated Map of H1N1/Swine Flu Cases in the United States "animates the swine flu spreading across the United States starting from April 26 to May 14, 2009 when the CDC stopped collecting data on H1N1 cases."

The CDC has its own maps, graphs, and charts, including data for regions of the US by weeks. link. They have their pluses, but a big minus is that they not as clear in terms of easily showing trends as the unofficial animated map linked to above. They are designed for experts - not for laypeople.

However, here are useful things you can get from the CDC's website.
Click on a region, and you get a graph, and that can take you to the data behind the graph. All are interesting, with different patterns in the various regions. However, there is no linkage of the data by week with calendar dates. As a result, it's hard to tell how things are going.

The CDC website data display at this link is much more useful, since it links with real world and has both a map and graph coupled with dates. The graph compares flu data for the prior two years.

At this link, you can also get a weekly CDC summary of flu news, followed by a chart with details on types of flu data collected.

Here is the most recent week's data from the CDC, to give you an example. Note the direction of changes in H1N1 hospitalizations and deaths over the prior week.

A total of 8,843 hospitalizations and 556 deaths associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses have been reported to CDC an increase from 7,983 hospitalizations and 522 deaths from the prior week

* During week 33:

o 804 (18.0%) specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and reported to CDC/Influenza Division were positive for influenza.

o 99% of all subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

o The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was below the epidemic threshold.

o Five influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported and all were associated with a 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection.

o The proportion of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) was below the national baseline. Region IV reported ILI above their region-specific baseline.

o Two states and Puerto Rico reported geographically widespread influenza activity, 13 states reported regional influenza activity, 10 states and the District of Columbia reported local influenza activity, 24 states reported sporadic influenza activity, one state reported no influenza activity, and Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands did not report.

If you scroll farther down, you get a bar graph with colors linked to types of flu. It makes seeing the increase and increasingly prevalence of H1N1 easy to see.

We will certainly continue covering this issue.

• h1n1,
• flu,
• influenza,
• WHO,
• World.Health.Organization,
• CDC,
• Centers.for.Disease.Control

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Let The Sun Shine In......