Hunter New England health has started a Flu Tracking service to identify where highly contagious influenza activity is impacting the community.
With weekly data from FluTracking.net, researchers are being provided with a better understanding of the influenza vaccines and where areas of flu are breaking the worst.
Since the 400 participants in 2006, there has been tremendous growth to now more than 30,000 people
completing surveys for the Flu Tracking data by registering at flutracking.net.
Hunter spokesperson, Dr Craig Dalton says "the online surveys are an indicator of where flu is hitting the hardest."
"It only takes ten seconds for an individual to complete a survey, they then get a link to an activity map and it essentially helps us track the severity and timing of flu right around the country."
"It helps us to understand how severe the flu is and whether it's worse than last year."
"We're also getting more and more people telling us whether they have had a flu test or not and if that was positive - the data will help determine whether the flu vaccine is working."
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| Image Credit: ABC Newcastle |
