Flu-related hospitalizations represent a broad range of disease severity, with associated requirements for clinical care, including hospital personnel, equipment, supplies, and other resources. The most severe cases may be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) or its equivalent, where they can receive the highest standards of care. Not all countries or setting utilize ICUs, so “ICU-level” refers to the disease severity that would warrant admission to an ICU or similar high-level treatment unit, regardless of whether that patient is actually admitted to an ICU.
The Flu Tool applies a multiplier to extrapolate from hospitalized cases in order to generate an estimate for the number of ICU-level flu hospitalizations. Default values are pre-filled below. You may use the default values or edit, as needed, to reflect your hospitalization estimates. If you choose to enter a custom multiplier, you must also enter confidence intervals.