Following flu with Health Map

Last night, the phone rang at 9:22 pm. I quickly glanced at the caller ID. Hmmm. Why is the Seattle School district calling us at this time of night?

Apparently the swine flu has come to Seattle and the school district thought we should know.

Those messages are helpful if you're a parent, but they don't tell much about the rest of the world.

Health Map is a really wonderful, user-friendly, resource for following the epidemic.

When you get to Health Map , choose Select None to clear the map.

Then select Swine Flu.

You'll see a Google map with markers representing reports. The colors show the numbers and severity.

To see more detail, click the map markers. Then, you get to learn interesting things, like this:

Luckily for us, if Seattle schools close, they'll call us and let us know.

UPDATE:  You can zoom in and look more closely.  You can also enter URLs from outbreaks to get them added to Health Map.