# 5959
Earlier this week I profiled the European internet based flu survey system in Europe: Online Flu Monitoring Survey.
This morning I signed up to be part of a similar project here in the United States which is being run by Healthmap of Children’s Hospital Boston in partnership with the American Public Health Association and the Skoll Global Threats Fund.
The project is called FLU NEAR YOU.
Signing up takes just a minute, is free, and is open to all Americans over the age of 13. After you receive a confirmatory email, you are then then asked to complete a very simple weekly questionnaire (see below).
Your responses, along with all of the others gathered each week, are then mapped and graphed.
The information gathered will be made available to public health officials, researchers, disaster planning organizations and the general public.
Participation takes just a minute or so a week, and the more people who take part the better this system will work. The website lists these features.
What can you do on Flu Near You?
The public can:
- Complete quick surveys to advance our collective understanding of the flu
- See flu activity in your area at the regional or state level
- Explore flu trends around the world with Google Flu trends
- Use the Flu Vaccine Finder to find nearby locations offering flu shots or nasal spray flu vaccine
- Connect to local public health links
- Receive customized email disease alerts at your location
- Learn more about flu news, information, and resources at flu.gov
- Explore the RSS feed on updates on nearby flu outbreaks and related flu news
- Browse the Disease Daily to discover summaries of important outbreaks and expanded coverage through the Outbreaks 101 news section
So I would encourage my readers to check out the site, and consider volunteering to take part in this surveillance project.
