Flu Season Starts with Concerns Centering on Community Response Plans

The real-time local surveillance and response system developed during the H1N1 flu outbreak last year should be studied as a possible national model for future epidemics, according to the new study, Response to H1N1 in a US-Mexico Border Community, published in the journal, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science. The authors of the study found that “daily data analyses, including geographical information system mapping of cases and reports of school and daycare absences, were used for outbreak management,” and that “aggregate reports of influenza-like illness and primary school absences were accurate in predicting influenza activity and were practical for use in local tracking, making decisions, and targeting interventions. These simple methods,” the authors stressed, “should be considered for local implementation and for integration into national recommendations for epidemic preparedness and response” for the future.