About
Seasonal influenza is a significant cause of global illness and death. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed guidance, and provides support to countries to strengthen their national influenza surveillance systems and develop national-level burden estimates. Yet, many countries face significant barriers related to data availability for burden estimation, particularly low- and middle-income countries.
The Seasonal Influenza Disease Burden Estimator (Flu Tool) aims to help public health officials and other decisionmakers better understand seasonal influenza burden in their country, even when surveillance data are incomplete or limited. Using a multiplier-based approach, the tool estimates the number of influenza cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by season, including for individual age groups, across a country’s entire population or specific sub-populations. These estimates can help decisionmakers more effectively prepare for seasonal influenza epidemics and future pandemics. Users can easily print or e-mail the estimates generated by the Flu Tool to themselves or their colleagues.
The Flu Tool was developed by the World Health Organization in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Please contact us with any questions: centerhealthsecurity@jhu.edu
Project Team
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Principal Investigator and Team Lead:
- Crystal Watson, DrPH, MPH
Research and Tool Development Team:
- Dionne Mitcham, MPH
- Matthew Shearer, MPH
- Madisen Neufeld, MPS
- Amanda Mui, MPH
Project Management, Communications, and Web Team:
- Debora Sandiford, MHS
- Cagla Giray, PhD
- Julia Cizek
World Health Organization
WHO Global Influenza Programme Team:
- Vanessa Cozza, MD
- Stefano Tempia, PhD, MSc
Web Tool Design and Development
- House9
Special thanks to colleagues who worked on earlier tool versions:
- Robin Boddie, MA, MSc
- Julia Fitzner, MD (WHO)
- Sarah Hamid, PhD, MPH (WHO)
- Divya Hosangadi, MSPH
- Natasha Kaushal, MSPH
- Elena Martin, MPH
- Diane Meyer, RN, MPH
- Margaret Miller, MSc
- Sanjana Ravi, MPH
- Marc Trotochaud, MSPH
- Prarthana Vasudevan, MS, MSPH
- Kelsey Lane Warmbrod, MS, MPH