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Entries in CDC (4)

Wednesday
Nov122008

Google Announces Flu Tracking Capabilities, May Predict Outbreak Before CDC




Google announced yesterday that they are tracking flu trends and hope to be able to alert people to an outbreak before the CDC is even aware an outbreak has occurred.

According to a post on the Google.org Blog "The CDC does a great job of surveying real doctors and patients to accurately track the flu, so why bother with estimates from aggregated search queries? It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly. By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza.

For epidemiologists, this is an exciting development, because early detection of a disease outbreak can reduce the number of people affected. If a new strain of influenza virus emerges under certain conditions, a pandemic could emerge and cause millions of deaths (as happened, for example, in 1918). Our up-to-date influenza estimates may enable public health officials and health professionals to better respond to seasonal epidemics and — though we hope never to find out — pandemics.

We shared our preliminary results with the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of the Influenza Division at CDC throughout the 2007-2008 flu season, and together we saw that our search-based flu estimates had a consistently strong correlation with real CDC surveillance data. Our system is still very experimental, so anything is possible, but we're hoping to see similar correlations in the coming year."

Source 1
Source 2 Google Flu Trends

Friday
Sep052008

CDC Chief Warns Pandemic Flu Is Coming

Swans Dead After Bird Flu Outbreak At Swannery



During a a national conference Thursday Dr. Julie Gerberding director of the CDC says "ready or not, a flu pandemic is coming."

"No one knows when the pandemic is coming or what strain of flu virus will cause it, but it is overdue", she said.

She was also correct in her statement in which she said, "politicians are not talking about a flu pandemic or the bird flu virus, which may or may not be the virus that causes the next pandemic. No one is talking about it, and it’s not on their radar screen.”

At the conference she also made mention that critical products and services including food, and water and basic drugs will be unavailable due to transportation and energy problems.



For more on this story please visit our Source.

Thursday
Aug212008

CDC Press Release: CDC Releases 1918 Pandemic Flu Storybook Online

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released today an online storybook containing narratives from survivors, families, and friends about one of the largest scourges ever on human kind – the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed millions of people around the world. The storybook provides valuable insight for public health officials preparing for the possibility of another pandemic sometime in our future.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic. The internet storybook contains about 50 stories from individuals from 24 states around the country as well as photos and narrative videos from the storytellers.

“Complacency is enemy number one when it comes to preparing for another influenza pandemic,” said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “These stories, told so eloquently by survivors, family members, and friends from past pandemics, serve as a sobering reminder of the devastating impact that influenza can have and reading them is a must for anyone involved in public health preparedness.”

The idea for such a storybook emerged during crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) training CDC has been conducting with health professionals over the past few years. The online storybook contains narratives from survivors, families, and friends who lived through the 1918 and 1957 pandemics. The agency welcomes new submissions and plans to update the book each quarter. Narratives from the 1968 pandemic are also welcome.

“It′s an excellent resource, not only for public health professionals, but for people of all ages,” said Sharon KD Hoskins, a public affairs officer who coordinated the project for CDC. “It’s probably the closest to experiencing the real thing that many of us can imagine.”

The storybook can be found at http://www.pandemicflu.gov/storybook/index.html.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


SOURCE

Thursday
Aug212008

CDC Press Release: Most U.S. Measles Cases Reported since 1996

Many Unvaccinated because of Philosophical Beliefs

More measles cases have been reported in the United States since Jan. 1, 2008 than during the same period in any year since 1996, according to a report released today by he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Between January 1 and July 31, 2008, 131 cases were reported to CDC′s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). At least fifteen patients, including four children younger than 15 months of age, were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

In the decade before the measles vaccination program began, an estimated 3–4 million persons in the United States were infected each year. Of these, 400–500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis.

“Measles can be a severe, life-threatening illness” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of NCIRD. “These cases and outbreaks serve as a reminder that measles can and still does occur in the United States.”

Of the 131 patients, 112 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Among the 112 unvaccinated U.S. residents with measles, 16 were younger than 12 months of age and too young for vaccination, and one had presumed evidence of measles immunity because the person was born before 1957.

Of the 95 patients eligible for vaccination, 63 were unvaccinated because of their or their parents′ philosophical or religious beliefs.

Although immunization coverage rates for measles vaccine remain high, unvaccinated persons are at risk for measles, and sizeable measles outbreaks can occur in communities with a high number of unvaccinated persons.

Measles is consistently one of the first diseases to reappear when immunization coverage rates fall. Increases in the proportion of the population declining vaccination for themselves or their children might lead to large-scale outbreaks in the U.S. Currently, Israel and a number of countries in Europe -- including Switzerland, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom -- are reporting sizeable measles outbreaks among populations refusing vaccination.

“These cases resulted primarily from failure to vaccinate, many because of philosophical or religious belief,” said Dr. Schuchat. “The vaccine against measles is highly effective in preventing infections, and high immunization levels in the community are effective at preventing or drastically decreasing the size of outbreaks.”

Reports include cases from Illinois (32 cases), New York (27), Washington (19), Arizona (14), California (14), Wisconsin (7), Michigan (4), Hawaii (5), Arkansas (2), and Washington, D.C., and Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (1 each).

Nine of the importations were in U.S. residents who had traveled abroad, and 8 were in foreign visitors. An additional 99 of the 131 cases had evidence of importation or were epidemiologically linked to importations. These import-related cases have largely occurred among school-aged children who are eligible for vaccination but whose parents have chosen not to vaccinate them. The source of 15 cases could not be determined.

Of the 131 cases, 17 were importations from the following countries: Switzerland (3), Italy (3), Israel (2), Belgium (2), India (2), Germany (1), The People′s Republic of China (1), Pakistan (1), The Russian Federation (1) and the Philippines (1).

There were 55 cases of measles reported during 2006; 66 cases during 2005; 37 cases during 2004; 56 cases during 2003; and 44 cases during 2002.

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