Today I’m proud to announce the first in a series of new data projects at LJWorld.com: [our flu tracker for the 2009-2010 flu season](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/). Our goal with this, and with all of our upcoming data presentations, is to supplement our usual news coverage — stories, interviews, photos — with as much contextual data as we can offer, and to provide not just the raw data behind the news you read but also the necessary understanding for using the data.

In our flu-season tracker you’ll find information gathered from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These agencies are collecting and publishing immense amounts of data about the usual seasonal flu and the H1N1 “swine flu”. Tracking down and making sense of all that information can be a bit overwhelming, so we’re aggregating some of the most important data and making it easily accessible.

I’ve identified a few different data sets which show the impact the flu is having on Lawrence, Douglas County and Kansas. [Our tracker](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/) plots the disease over the season (most of the data starts in September or October), and breaks the data down into [weekly flu reports](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/#weekly-reports).

That gives us a picture of the flu season which includes:

* [Overall flu activity in Kansas](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/#flu-activity). This comes from the CDC’s weekly flu-season reports, and shows the extent of flu activity on a state-by-state basis. We’ve pulled in the week-by-week data for Kansas and turned it into a color-coded indicator of how widespread the flu — both seasonal and H1N1 — is at any given moment.

* [Flu-related deaths in Kansas](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/#flu-mortality). This data comes from KDHE, which reports each death caused by H1N1, as well as weekly updates on the number of flu-related deaths and the total number of deaths in Kansas. Since flu-related deaths, and especially H1N1-related deaths, have been a major concern this flu season, we’re presenting these numbers side-by-side with a partial age breakdown to provide some additional context.

* [Self-reported flu-like illness](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/#self-reported-ili). Regular surveys coordinated by the CDC gather information from people in each state about how the flu has affected them and their families. Although this information is self-reported rather than coming from doctors or other medical professionals, it’s still a useful glance at the impact of flu in Kansas. We’re presenting the results for each two-week survey period as they come in.

* [School absences](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/#school-absences). KDHE gathers this data from local health departments, and reports the percentage of schools in each county which have 10% or more of their students absent in a given week. Although it doesn’t only cover flu-related absences, this is another interesting look at how our community is being affected. We’re presenting the reported absence data for Douglas County’s schools on a weekly basis (except for weeks when schools are on holiday break).

As the flu season progresses, I’ll be adding more information. If there’s something you’d like to see, please let me know. And for even more information, check out the sources listed in each area of the flu tracker; [CDC’s flu surveillance](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivity.htm) and [KDHE’s weekly epidemiology reports](http://www.kdheks.gov/H1N1/H1N1_Epi_Reports.htm) offer comprehensive state, regional and national coverage of the ongoing flu season.