Sign up to an early warning system
I’ve signed my household up for the FluTrackers project. This fantastic initiative uses the power of the internet to track flu and flu-like symptoms across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Here’s how it works. If you’ve signed up, every week during flu season you’ll be sent a short online survey. It should take just 10-15 seconds to fill out. The survey starts with two simple questions: did anyone in your household have a fever and did anyone have a cough over the previous week?
If you answer yes to either of those questions, you’ll be asked a few more: have they also had a sore throat, taken any time off work, or seen a doctor or other healthcare provider?
FluTrackers began in Australia in 2006 and expanded to include New Zealand in 2018. Here, it’s supported by our government and the Ministry of Health.
The project normally starts about April or May each year, when flu season really kicks off in the southern hemisphere.
This year, FluTrackers has started early. It’s not hard to see why. In just a couple of months, news of a serious flu-like illness emerging in China has turned into a serious global threat.
That illness, now called Covid-19, is caused by a newly identified coronavirus.
As I write this, the virus has sickened more than 80,000 people and killed more than 2700. It has spread to more than 30 countries and regions outside mainland China.
While the majority of those countries are managing to contain its spread, the recent cases in South Korea, Italy, and the Middle East, are a worrying sign that it may be getting the upper hand.
Initiatives like FluTrackers may turn out to be an important weapon in the global fight against Covid-19. While not everyone with the virus has a fever in the early stages of infection, being able to track sudden increases in flu-like symptoms will still help as part of an early warning system.
Last year, about 4000 people in New Zealand took part in FluTrackers. That’s a great start, but initiatives like this work at their best when hundreds of thousands of people sign up.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up at info.flutracking.net.
Initiatives like Flu Trackers may turn out to be an important weapon in the global fight against Covid-19.