HealthMap(*) is best known for its maps that track infectious diseases internationally — but it also publishes a useful blog offering weekly roundups of global H1N1 news. Think of the HealthMap blog as a concise one-stop shop for swine-flu developments around the world.
Its most recent post, for example, documents among other things H1N1 deaths of Hajj pilgrims, an eastward spread of the flu in Europe and Asia, and a study of U.S. Army personnel that suggests the 2008 seasonal-flu vaccine offers some protection against H1N1.
The blog looks like a helpful addition to the sources of international information we posted a while back. We’ve included it in our list of international resources on our “Reporter and Program Resources” page.
(*)The HealthMap maps use a variety of data streams “of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization).” You’d have to do your own analysis to judge the accuracy of the aggregated numbers, but both Flu.gov and Harvard Med School’s H1N1 iPhone app use HealthMap data. You can contact HealthMap directly at info[at]healthmap[dot]org for more information.
