Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Flu Vaccination Locations on Google Maps


Flu Near You is tracking instances of flu throughout north America. The data for the map comes from users who submit weekly health reports to Flu Near You.

The site uses Google Maps to plot the location of users' health reports. Blue markers represent 'no symptoms', yellow markers indicate 'some symptoms and black markers 'influenza like symptoms'. A heat map layer also displays the flu level in each state.

Users can also click on each state on the map to view a breakdown of the number of reports of flu at the state level. Obviously the Flu Near You flu incidence reports are only as good as the data being entered. Probably the most useful thing on the map is a search facility to find nearby flu vaccination locations.


The data for the vaccination locator comes from the HealthMap Vacine Finder. The HealthMap Vaccine Finder is a service that helps you find locations that offer immunizations for a number of health conditions.

Google created a Flu Vaccine Finder in response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. In 2012 HealthMap took over from Google by creating the new HealthMap Vaccine Finder, which allows users to search for flu vaccination locations and 10 additional adult vaccines.

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