Flu Near You is a free tool that’s been made to help in the fight against flu. The way it works is that people like you and I anonymously report each week on whether we had symptoms or flu shots. The information is used to place a dot on a map of the community so [...]
It’s almost that time of year… flu season. Flu shots have arrived and are already in many pharmacies and doctor’s offices, meaning you can already get vaccinated before the flu hits this season. There’s a wide array of influenza vaccine choices these days - more than ever. The nasal spray is approved for healthy, non-pregnant people between [...]
There’s a new CDC Sortable Stats web application that went live a couple of weeks ago that provides an interactive tool to analyze behavioral risk factors and health indicators compiled from various published CDC and federal sources. You can search by state for things like death rates (e.g. infant mortality, heart disease, motor vehicle death rates, [...]
The core of our decision-making as an agency relies on evidence. Evidence can be scientific like surveillance or research or it can be administrative or financial. Whichever way you slice it- the key is to get good reliable information so that our teams can make effective decisions as we execute our mission. One of the [...]
China is continuing to report more and more cases of the new H7N9 Influenza virus. So far they’ve confirmed 108 cases with a death rate of about 20% (21 deaths) All the cases appear to have jumped from birds to humans- meaning that there’s no human-to-human transmission (which is good). One concern is that if a person becomes infected [...]
Just as our influenza season winds down (and it is), it's time to plan for the next one. Every February the World Health Organization convenes a panel of experts to look at the most current data on the circulating flu strains from around the world and makes recommendations for the next season’s Northern Hemisphere flu vaccine. [...]
The CDC's “Strategic National Stockpile” is a large quantity of medicine and medical supplies that are available to states in case there’s a public health emergency (flu outbreak, asteroid, etc.) severe enough to cause local health supplies to run out. Once federal and local authorities agree that the stockpile is needed, meds and supplies are [...]
This year’s flu really packed a wallop all across the country. In Arizona we’ve had almost 250% more cases than last year so far. But the good news is, this week’s flu report shows we’re on the downhill slope. We’ve seen fewer new cases in the past couple weeks - but it’s not completely gone. [...]
Yesterday afternoon's weekly flu report shows that influenza is still circulating widely in AZ... with a steep increase in the last couple of weeks. The strain that’s circulating is mostly Type A - H3N2 which can be more severe than the 2009 H1N1, especially for seniors. There are plenty of B strains going around too. But you can still find [...]
During the 2009- 2010 influenza pandemic, we saw how influenza can be unpredictable in terms of who it affects most, when it occurs, and what strains will circulate. This season is no exception. While the circulating strains are exactly what we predicted, the peak of the flu season is hitting earlier than usual (now) and it's [...]
