Friday, October 05, 2007

Australian Influenza Symposium

Was wondering where the proceedings of the Australian Influenza Symposia were published. I was having lunch in the cafe at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. The 3rd Australian Influenza Symposium is underway there (4 to 5 October 2007). This is sponsored by the Office of Health Protection, Department of Health and Aging, Australian Government; Australian WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza; and the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Some of the topics, such as "Confronting the Next Pandemic", several on H5N1 (avian influenza or "bird flu") and also Equine Influenza ("Horse Flu") sounded interesting, as I have talked on "Dealing with a bird flu pandemic using the wireless web and podcasting". But when I did a web search I found no references to the 2007 symposium and only two references to the 2006 symposium. Perhaps medical people don't call for papers or publish results online?

ps: Also there was a business card "Wanted Epidemic Reporters" from NSW Health, with the web address "flutracking.net". This appears to be a online system for detecting a flu outbreak:
Welcome to the Epidemic Reporter Influenza Tracking Project Web Site

We are looking for people who live in Australia and are 18 years of age or over and have easy access to email and the internet on a weekly basis.

A new health surveillance system to detect epidemics of influenza is being trialed which will require people willing to spend about 10 - 15 seconds per week to respond to an email about symptoms they may have had in the previous week. This trial will help us find ways to detect both seasonal influenza and hopefully pandemic influenza and other diseases so we can better protect the community from epidemics.

Participation is voluntary and your information will be kept confidential. As a participant, you will receive weekly information on influenza-like activity in the region based on our analysis of the data. ...

From: Epidemic Reporter Project, Hunter New England Area Health Service, NSW Health
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