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Influenza Activity & Surveillance

Influenza Activity

The Knowledge Management Division of the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health Unit (KFL&A) operates the Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance (ACES) System on behalf of the Province of Ontario. ACES is a real-time syndromic surveillance system that uses emergency department visit data to detect potential threats to public health.

Leveraging ACES data, KFL&A developed the following to support health system partners:

• Ontario Acute Care Surge Monitor to visualize and better understand real-time demand on the entire acute care system and on an individual hospital.
• Influenza-like Illness Mapper to project influenza-like illness (ILI) activity in the province based on assessment of circulating influenza strains along with other respiratory virus activity, emergency department visit volumes for ILI and respiratory complaints and hospital admission volumes of patients diagnosed with pneumonia or influenza.

Global Influenza Activity Resources

There are a variety of sources that health workers and health sector employers can turn to for information on influenza activity in Ontario, Canada, North America and the world:

• Ontario Respiratory Pathogen Report
  Public Health Ontario produces the ORPB weekly from November to May and the interactive version on PHO’s website is updated weekly all year round.
• FluWatch Report
  The Public Health Agency of Canada publishes a weekly report from October to May and bi-weekly the rest of the year to share analysis of the national laboratory and epidemiological surveillance data gathered through its FluWatch Program.
• CDC Flu Website
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States shares information on influenza activity across all states.
• WHO Influenza Website
  The World Health Organization (WHO) shares virological and epidemiological data from countries, areas and territories around the world.

Seasonal Influenza Risk Assessment Process

From November to April, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care reviews a set of indicators on a weekly basis to assess how the province is progressing through the influenza season. These indicators include data from syndromic and laboratory surveillance systems, as well as health system utilization data.

For more information about this project, please contact the ministry's Health System Emergency Management Branch by email at emergencymanagement.moh@ontario.ca or by phone at 1-866-212-2272.