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Influenza Outbreaks

Map No. 238

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Influenza, commonly known as flu, has huge fluctuations in prevalence over time. In Argentina in 2001 there were sizeable outbreaks of influenza lasting for 8 weeks. These 8 weeks were during the cold season (end of July to early September).

This map shows the length of time that people have been exposed to influenza outbreaks between 2000 and 2005. The populations of the Russian Federation and Colombia experienced influenza outbreaks 20% of the time, so they appear large on the map. Influenza outbreaks affect whole communities, not just those who catch it.

"With limited vaccine supply, uncertainty over who will be at highest risk of infection and complications ... society faces a fundamental ethical dilemma. Who should get the vaccine first?" Ezekial Emanuel, 2006

Territory size shows the proportion of people worldwide living where there is an influenza outbreak, per week, between 2000 and 2005.

• Open PDF poster, designed for printing. You need Acrobat Reader.
• View labelled territory map or population map for comparison
• Data files: Excel (large with map), Excel (small no map), Opendoc format (see notes)
• Technical notes for this data.
• High Resolution image (see copyright conditions)
• All of the data we use is estimated; see data page