Improve Tracking of Global Pandemics
- by: Rhiza Labs FluTracker
- recipient: Drs. Margaret Chan & Thomas Frieden, Directors of the WHO & CDC
Concerned citizens and medical professionals alike need detailed, timely information about the spread of H1N1 swine flu to safeguard their communities and families. The CDC and WHO should be releasing more detailed and timely information about the spread of swine flu than is currently available to the public. Moreover, both organizations are releasing information with decreasing frequency, despite the increasing spread of the virus.
Join the call for more accurate, timely information about the spread of H1N1 Swine Flu! Sign the letter here, then read the extended version or visit flutracker.rhizalabs.com and get more informed!
Join the call for more accurate, timely information about the spread of H1N1 Swine Flu! Sign the letter here, then read the extended version or visit flutracker.rhizalabs.com and get more informed!
Summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere share the explosive growth of H1N1 swine flu. The potential for the novel H1N1 virus to combine with other strains during the northern hemisphere's upcoming flu season, along with the World Health Organization's elevation of swine flu to pandemic status, underscore the growing threat to public health.
It is likely that the CDC and WHO have more detailed and timely information than they are releasing to the general public. Moreover, both organizations are releasing information with decreasing frequency, despite the increasing spread of the virus. Clear and complete access to information enables medical professionals, local agencies and citizens to make fact-driven health decisions.
Together, we can do this. In partnership with leading bioresearch firm Recombinomics, Rhiza Labs has created FluTracker, the world's most accurate and comprehensive database of flu cases across the world. Rhiza Labs' process of Controlled Crowd Sourcing enables FluTracker users to submit cases of swine flu from the media, official reports and their own observations. Recombinomics' team of experts then filters these reports for accuracy. As well as accurate, FluTracker's figures are many days ahead of the CDC's reporting. Through Controlled Crowd Sourcing, FluTracker has become the world's most accurate and comprehensive database of flu cases across the world.
Concerned citizens and medical professionals alike need detailed, timely flu information to safeguard our communities and families. We the undersigned call on the CDC and the WHO to take the following steps to provide the level of flu information necessary for us to safeguard our communities and families:
Click here to read the extended petition.
Sign PetitionSign PetitionIt is likely that the CDC and WHO have more detailed and timely information than they are releasing to the general public. Moreover, both organizations are releasing information with decreasing frequency, despite the increasing spread of the virus. Clear and complete access to information enables medical professionals, local agencies and citizens to make fact-driven health decisions.
Together, we can do this. In partnership with leading bioresearch firm Recombinomics, Rhiza Labs has created FluTracker, the world's most accurate and comprehensive database of flu cases across the world. Rhiza Labs' process of Controlled Crowd Sourcing enables FluTracker users to submit cases of swine flu from the media, official reports and their own observations. Recombinomics' team of experts then filters these reports for accuracy. As well as accurate, FluTracker's figures are many days ahead of the CDC's reporting. Through Controlled Crowd Sourcing, FluTracker has become the world's most accurate and comprehensive database of flu cases across the world.
Concerned citizens and medical professionals alike need detailed, timely flu information to safeguard our communities and families. We the undersigned call on the CDC and the WHO to take the following steps to provide the level of flu information necessary for us to safeguard our communities and families:
- Expand and increase community surveillance of the spread of pandemic flu. The current focus on airport screening ignores community spread within a country's borders.
- Adopt the Controlled Crowd-Sourcing model of information gathering. This is a proven method of expanding community surveillance. Solicit user contributed reporting and filter it through content area experts. This will yield more complete, reliable information than either the public or experts can collect independently.
- Release geographically specific flu data. Citizens should be able to pinpoint each case as specifically as possible without violating the privacy of flu patients.
- Release timely flu data. Citizens need access to as timely information as possible.
- Publish flu data in machine-readable formats. Currently flu reports are available only as maps and graphics. Allow users to download data in common formats such as RSS, KML, XML and CSV for use in systems of their choice.
- Formally adopt the best available data visualization systems. Use dynamic maps and charts to make flu information easy for non-experts to access and understand.
- Expand and increase sequencing of the flu's genes. H1N1 will evolve more rapidly in upcoming weeks. Health officials must aggressively complete sequencing of the virus' genes, and rapidly release the results in a number of machine-readable formats. Medical professionals need this information to effectively monitor and address an evolving threat.
Click here to read the extended petition.
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