You're all achy, coughing and feverish. Work is out of the question, but you're not sick enough to see a doctor. How nice it would be if someone checked in to ask how you're feeling.
The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene won't send over a pot of chicken soup. But state epidemiologists have a first-in-the-nation, Web-based project to ask thousands of residents whether they've been laid low by flu symptoms.
The Maryland Resident Influenza Tracking Survey is designed to augment reports from the doctors, hospitals and medical laboratories traditionally used to gather data on the geography and intensity of the flu season. The health department sends a weekly e-mail to people who sign up, asking them such questions as whether they've had a fever or a sore throat.
"We're looking at ways to fill in the gaps of our existing surveillance system," said Rene Najera, an epidemiologist at the health department. "We're trying to get at people who don't go to the hospital or do not see physicians. When those people do not seek care, they don't get reported to us."
With a more complete picture of a spreading flu epidemic, health officials say, they might be more effective with efforts to vaccinate people and teach them how to avoid catching and spreading the flu.
Each winter, 5 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 200,000 are hospitalized, on average, and 36,000 die from flu complications. Older people, young children and those with chronic conditions or weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable.
Maryland's new tracking survey began Oct. 5, checking on a growing list of Marylanders. More than 350 have signed up so far for the weekly e-mails. And so far, they're feeling pretty good, Najera said.
Of the 220 people who responded to the most recent questionnaire, only two reported experiencing flu-like symptoms during the week, very close to the 1 percent reported by the "sentinel" physicians who share office statistics with the health department.
"It's been that way for the last four weeks," Najera said. But reports from the two sources are "both trending upward."
That's as expected. The 2008-2009 flu season is just getting under way. Maryland health authorities reported the state's first laboratory-confirmed flu case Monday. Tests confirmed that a Type A (H1) flu virus sickened a child in the Baltimore area.
