About
The Seasonal Influenza Disease Burden Estimator (Flu Tool) aims to help public health officials and other decisionmakers better understand their seasonal flu burden, even when surveillance data are limited. Using a multiplier-based approach, the tool estimates flu cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by flu season, including for individual age groups, across a country’s entire population or specific sub-populations. Users can easily print or e-mail these estimates to themselves or their colleagues.
Seasonal flu is a significant cause of global illness and death. The World Health Organization (WHO) works with countries to strengthen their national flu surveillance systems and develop national-level flu burden estimates. Yet, many countries face significant barriers related to data collection and reporting, particularly low- and middle-income countries. The Flu Tool allows countries to estimate their flu burden, even with incomplete or limited data. These estimates can help decisionmakers more effectively prepare for seasonal flu epidemics and future flu pandemics.
The Flu Tool was developed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization.
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
World Health Organization 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:
- Julia Fitzner, MD (WHO)
- Sanjana Ravi, MPH
- Kelsey Lane Warmbrod, MS, MPH
- Marc Trotochaud, MSPH
- Natasha Kaushal, MSPH
- Divya Hosangadi, MSPH
- Elena Martin, MPH
- Diane Meyer, RN, MPH
- Robin Boddie, MA, MSc
- Prarthana Vasudevan, MS, MSPH
- Margaret Miller, MSc
- Sarah Hamid, PhD, MPH (WHO)