# 2006
Although the weekly case counts and fatality numbers released by the WHO (World Health Organization) are probably best ignored, there is still a good deal of information to be gleaned from these updates.
The WHO is dependent upon the surveillance and reporting of member nations, and in many regions, that simply doesn’t happen. A good example comes from the map below, showing the trends in respiratory illness compared to last week.
As you can see, China, Mexico, Australia, much of the Middle East, and nearly the entire continent of Africa didn’t report any numbers. That’s a pretty good chunk of the world’s population.
As one might expect, the numbers below the equator are decreasing, while those in the Northern Hemisphere are either on the rise or the same as last week.
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 74
Weekly update
13 November 2009 -- As of 8 November 2009, worldwide more than 206 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 6250 deaths.
As many countries have stopped counting individual cases, particularly of milder illness, the case count is likely to be significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred. WHO is actively monitoring the progress of the pandemic through frequent consultations with the WHO Regional Offices and member states and through monitoring of multiple sources of data.
(Continue . . . )
This next map gives denotes the impact that the H1N1 pandemic is having on health care services around the world. Again, a great portion of the world isn’t reporting numbers.
Impact refers to the degree of disruption of health-care services as a result of acute respiratory disease.
- - Low: demands on health-care services are not above usual levels.
- Moderate: demands on health-care services are above the usual demand levels but still below the maximum capacity of those services.
- Severe: demands on health care services exceed the capacity of those services.
- No information available.
