# 3882
With flu season in the northern hemisphere upon us, and cooler weather bringing the likelihood of new H5N1 bird flu reports as well, the newshounds that work the flu forums are looking at six very busy months ahead.
Newshounds are volunteers who spend hours each day searching in the hundreds of online English and Foreign language news sources for information pertaining to pandemic influenza, avian flu, and other emerging infectious diseases.
Their efforts appear on flu forums like Flutrackers, the Flu Wiki, Plan For Pandemic, CurEvents and PFI or in blogs such as Crofsblog, Chen Qi or Pandemic Information News .
Much of what I do in this blog is dependent upon their labors. While I still do a fair amount of news hounding myself, at least half of the stories I blog about come by way of these hardworking news analysts.
I’ve highlighted their efforts a number of times, and always try to hat tip them whenever I use one of their links, but perhaps the best introduction to how they work can be found in an essay entitled:
While I select the 3 or 4 (or sometimes more – yesterday I did 10) stories that interest or intrigue me to blog about each day, that doesn’t come close to covering the territory that the newshounds traverse each day.
Their work thankfully is archived on the flu forums, where it is discussed, analyzed, and becomes part of the historical record. The flu forums have essentially become repositories of flu and infectious disease information, that function like real-time libraries.
While there are a half dozen flu forums - all with hard working members - with just 24 hours in a day, I tend to focus my attention on two; Flu Wiki and FluTrackers.
Crof over at Crofsblog quite accurately says that trying to keep up with the flow of information is like trying to drink from a fire hose. These forums make that task – if not easy – at least a bit less daunting.
Both FluTrackers and The Flu Wiki produce a daily summary of news items, which helps make it easier to pluck out individual news stories from the onslaught of posts.
The Flu Wiki summary is updated in real time, during the day, at the top of each day’s news thread. Each item has a corresponding link to take you to the original source material (news article, journal article, etc.).
(Unsourced news items are not allowed on the news threads, and are generally frowned upon in Flublogia)
Excerpts of the story, and comments, can found below the summary in the body of the news thread.
This is what the Flu Wiki Daily Summary looked like yesterday.
Australia
• Teen swine flu victim's muscles 'melted' (Link)Canada
• One more death in Ontario, total for province now 28 (Link)
• Alberta confirms another death, total now 9 (Link)Indonesia
• Health Minister Promises International Cooperation (translated) (Link)Ireland
• Youth is Ireland's ninth flu death (Link)
• "Unprecedented" numbers sick with H1N1 (Link)United Kingdom
• Swine flu vaccine: drugs regulator casts doubt on one dose schedule (Link)
• Two more swine flu deaths in Wales (Link)
• Sir Elton cancels arena concert (Link)
• Cheerleader in flu jab horror (Link)
United States
• AL: Nursing students get vaccinated as two more H1N1 deaths reported (Link)
• DE: Delaware death of 15 yr old ruled H1N1-related(Link)
• KY: two more deaths in Kentucky last week, total now 10(Link)• MI: First death confirmed in Kalamazoo, Michigan (Link)
• MN: Martin County Officials React To H1N1 Deaths (Link)
• MN: Minnesota Mom Says Swine Flu Led to Son's Death (Link)
• MO: Health director suspends flu vaccine law (Link)
• NC: Brunswick County confirmed 1st death, new mom (Link)
• OR: 800 turned away from Multnomah County swine flu shot site (Link)
• OR: Josephine County has its first H1N1 death (Link)
• OR: 2 S. Oregon swine flu patients in critical condition (Link)
• OR: Josephine County to declare State of Emergency - H1N1 (Link)
• SC: Joe Wilson's wife diagnosed with swine flu (Link)
• TX: New Flu Deaths in Dallas & Tarrant (Link)
• TX: Local Health District Offers Drive-Through FluMist Clinic Friday (Link)
• WI: Second death in Winnebago County (Link)
General
• Swine flu may protect against bird flu (Link)
• Human transmits H1N1 flu to ferret(Link)
• Nearly 5,000 H1N1 Flu Deaths Reported World-Wide (Link)
• Washing hands won't stop a respiratory virus (Link)
• GSK's flu vaccine delivers strong response in children with one shot(Link)
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FluTrackers takes a slightly different approach, posting a summary at slightly irregular intervals, but generally every 24 to 36 hours.
The links provided in this case take you to the thread, or post, dealing with that story. From there you will find links to the original source material.
You’ll find the latest summary linked on the front page atop the right hand PANDEMIC FLU HELP column.
The FluTrackers summary tends to run a bit larger, and so I’ve only reproduced excerpts below. These snippets of the Oct 23rd summary represent about half of that summary.
China - Hong Kong - Tamiflu-resistant swine flu strain detected
A high-tech, rotating bed already saving lives at Indiana hospitals could be critical in the fight against the H1N1 flu.
U.S. Doctors Answer Flu Questions on New Website
Tracking World Wide Virulence of Swine Flu
Paper - The 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza and indigenous populations of the Americas and the Pacific
Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availabilty
- Algérie - Le vaccin contre la grippe A/H1N1 sera réceptionné à la fin du mois, selon Saïd Barkat - Muscade
- Canada - British Columbia - Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availability
- Canada - Ile-du-Prince-Edouard - Campagne de vaccination - Muscade
- Canada - Quebec - Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean: Un plan qui se précise - Muscade
- Canada - Quebec - H1N1 vaccinations start Monday in Quebec - Pathfinder
<SNIP>
- USA - Texas - Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availability - Pathfinder
- USA - Retard dans la livraison de vaccins aux États-Unis - Muscade
Novel H1N1 outbreaks
- Canada - Alberta - La grippe porcine balaie les Territoires du Nord-Ouest (25 communautés sur 33 - 65% des échantillons positifs) - Muscade
- Canada - Alberta - Absentéisme record dans les écoles - Muscade
- Canada - Quebec - Identification des écoles touchées - Muscade
- Canada - Quebec - Trois cas diagnostiqués dans une école de Granby - Muscade
<SNIP>
- UK - Deaths rise to 128 as A/H1N1 claims younger victims - Shiloh
- USA - California - California Death Toll from H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Grows - Americas hit Hardest - Chuck
- USA - Florida - Swine flu claims life of Seminole County girl - JimO
- USA - Florida - 11 New Deaths Reported in Florida last week – JimO
<SNIP>
- Vietnam - Swine flu continued to take its toll in Vietnam, as two children in central Danang City and southern Ben Tre Province
succumbed to the virus. - Dutchy- ECDC Update - Ironorehopper
Pneumonia and Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI)
- USA - ACHA Pandemic Influenza Surveillance Influenza Like Illness (ILI) in Colleges and Universities - Missouriwatcher
- USA - Massachusetts %ILI week 41 - RNboston
H5N1 outbreaks
- Indonésie - Sumatra Nord - Lubuk Pakam - Cas suspect - forte fièvre + poulets morts - Muscade
Other news
- Transcript of WHO Virtual Press Conference of 6 August 2009 with Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Director of Initiative for Vaccine Research at WHO Headquarters and Gregory Hartl, Spokesperson for H1N1 - Pathfinder
- Major Nurses Strike and Picket Looms October 30 As RNs to Protest Hospital Gaps in Swine Flu Safety – Chuck
<SNIP>
- USA - Swine flu vaccine shipments to Massachusetts are running three weeks behind schedule, forcing the state to direct local health departments to cancel vaccine clinics scheduled for next month. - Commonground
Studies
- N Engl J Med. Use of Ribavirin to Treat Influenza - Ironorehopper
- Les virus influenza A pourraient échapper au système immunitaire - Lili
- N Engl J Med. A Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccine in Various Age Groups - Ironorehopper
- Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Outbreak at the U.S. Air Force Academy: Epidemiology and Viral Shedding Duration - Ironorehopper
- Early transmission characteristics of influenza A(H1N1)v in Australia: Victorian state, 16 May – 3 June 2009 - Ironorehopper
Commentaries
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All of this, as you might imagine, takes an incredible amount of work and dedication. Scores of these folks work on the forums without pay, and far too often without recognition. Their work, by the way, is freely shared between forums and with the world.
The expertise of many of these newshounds is remarkable, with some becoming quite adept at translating articles, and knowledgeable about local customs and idioms in places like Indonesia and China.
The various flu forums, while certainly overlapping in some areas, each have found their own niche and style. Many of us belong to more than one forum, finding different things to value in each venue.
I’d hate to have to choose just one.
