If you get the flu, you can help curb the spread of illness with this new online tool

Flu season is here, and over 8,000 Georgia residents have already reported flu-like symptoms since September. But many flu cases go unreported each year.

Brandon Kirshner wants to change that.

Hoping to curb the spread of illness, the second-year internal medicine resident at Coliseum Medical Centers created a website where any Georgia resident can report his or her flu symptoms, without a trip to the doctor’s office or emergency room.

“The flu can really be beaten at home with proper supportive care,” Kirshner said. “It’s those people we want to reach, and we want them to actually log their symptoms to show that, ‘Hey, I may not be seeing a health care provider, but yes, I do have the flu. These are my symptoms, in this zip code.’”

At georgiaflu.com, patients can fill out an online form with their zip code, a checklist of symptoms and questions about whether or not they received a flu vaccine or medical treatment. Visitors to the website can also explore an interactive map that shows where cases have been logged throughout the state.

“With a tool like this that really looks at patient-reported data, we can see where the flu cases are actually happening in real time,” Kirshner said.

Epidemiologists and health care providers can then use that information to target specific areas for prevention and treatment efforts.

“If we understand that the flu maybe starts in that part of the state yearly, or this part of the state, we can sort of hone in our resources on getting vaccinations there earlier in the year,” Kirshner said. “You know, hospitals can better ready their throughput and get beds ready for people to come in if they know that flu season happens here.”

Local hospitals have already taken steps to ready themselves for the height of flu season. Navicent Health opened a mobile emergency unit across the street from its downtown emergency room on Pine Street last week to deal with the influx of patients it sees during flu season.

Both Navicent Health and Coliseum Health System also typically enforce stricter visitation guidelines to protect visitors from contracting or spreading the virus while at the hospital.

Nearly 1 million people were hospitalized for the flu last season, the CDC estimates, and over 80,000 died from the illness.

Better tracking of flu cases could lower those numbers, Kirshner said.

“If we can more efficiently vaccinate the population, as well as get the health care centers prepared for flu season, I think we can save a lot of lives,” he said.

The flu should be taken seriously, Kirshner added.

“Healthy individuals, they often feel immune to a simple virus,” he said. “But that’s not necessarily the case. It can strike anyone at any severity.”

Kirshner said the best way to prevent spread of the flu is through hand washing and vaccination.

Free flu shots are available to the public at the North Central Health District. Several local pharmacies, including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, also offer the flu vaccine with no copay for most insurance plans.

Samantha Max is a Report for America corps member and reports for The Telegraph with support from the News/CoLab at Arizona State University. Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/smax1996 and on Twitter @samanthaellimax. Learn more about Report for America at www.reportforamerica.org.