Resources to better understand the swine flu epidemic (updated 5/8)
The new H1N1 virus is spreading fast, but homo sapiens in 2009 has the ability to spread life-saving knowledge even faster. Here are some valuable online resources:
• [Update 5/8] Headline summary from authoritative news sources http://swine-flu.alltop.com/
• [Update 5/4] Regularly updated summary of cases worldwide http://flucount.org
• Veratect credited with first reporting of the epidemic and are one of the more reliable reporters of breaking health news. They can be followed on twitter @veratect, though I don't necessarily recommend it. Lots of short updates create an unsettling, possibly distorting drumbeat. A daily check-in better?!
• The relevant pages on the
official websites
are:
• CDC's Dr Martin Cedron
in the • Spectacular one page display of how media are reporting global health events (you can adjust for different locations, languages, and remember, just because it's a headline doesn't mean it's true) (via @vasantk)
• Important context. Click 'Illness' in LH bar. The counter for Respiratory Infections is showing the number of new influenza-like cases that are happening all the time, swine flu or no swine flu.
• Excellent, but worrying, article by former influenza researcher.
• Three key personal safety tips on HuffPost.
• A fine public health blog Effect Measure
of cases maintained by biomedical researcher 'Niman' (alas, you now have to zoom out because the virus has spread.) There are some duplications, and the info not necessarily up to date. Looking for better map.
• Timeline of the outbreak.
• Useful call for skepticism in this warning about Twitter misinformation
• ...google.org flu trends page that plots local-level reports of flu outbreaks in US compared with prior years. So far nothing out of the ordinary. (This page is one small outcome from Larry Brilliant's 2006 TED Prize wish.)
If you know of an additional great resource, or a problem with one of these, please post a comment.
Posted by Chris Anderson
