Flu activity in Montréal
Results to 14 November 2009: Here are the first results of your participation to the Internet survey!
The data presented here are preliminary and should be interpreted with caution, given the sample size: 597 registered participants provided information about ILI for themselves and household members, for a total of 972 people.
According to the data for the first 4 weeks of the survey, the proportion of GrippeMontréal participants who reported flu-like symptoms ("ILI", blue line) follows the health network pattern, that is, registration in emergency for ILI (pink line) and laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) (orange line).
The increasing trend of ILI in GrippeMontréal results coincides with that of the other data (registration in emergency for ILI and confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1)).
The graph shows an increase in ILI up to the week ending 7 November, followed by a slight decline from 8 to 14 November. The GrippeMontréal project and participant profile add to the other public health investigations.
These data are very encouraging because they demonstrate the capacity to quickly detect flu activity among Montréal's population through your online participation. And that's the greatest value of this system!
For example, if the GrippeMontréal team sees a rise or decline in flu activity, Montréal's public health department can report these trends to the health network and provide support to focus the services accordingly.
Over the next few weeks, we can count on this system to detect any increase in flu activity in Montréal.
If you haven't answered this week's questions yet,
