H7N9 Welcome to Week #50....

Chart of weekly cases from @influenza_bio

Let's play duelling charts!! My colleague on Twitter, @influenza_bio, (whom you should follow if you are not already - he's got a knack for (a) getting across some nice flu-facts in a easy-to-understand way and (b) he rants - who doesn't like a ranter!?! That sounded less weird in my head.

Today's chart update from me shows the avian influenza A(H7N9) virus weekly and accumulation case chart. In case I haven't mentioned this lately, the human cases of infection by this newly emerged (in humans) virus is all from south eastern China. 

Given that cases keep on coming, this chart has changed a lot in a few days. The last chart is now already 4-days old. Ancient. See it here.

Click on image to enlarge.

My latest chart lists 246 cases and is based on the FluTrackers curated list (to be found, and checked regularly, here) and includes all recent WHO update information which provides some extra details - including date of onset of illness and hospitalization since late October. WHO has a few cases to catch up on.

These are useful additions since cases can be noted in the media or by the relevant ministries or public health institutions many days after the illness manifested in the patient and even after they were admitted to a hospital, usually in pretty poor medical condition. 1 more was added form Jiangsu last night that missed those charts.

I've arbitrarily listed the 2 "Waves" of H7N9 cases - if there is an official designation for dates, I'd be happy to hear of it.