Landlæknisembættið - Directorate of Health

21.08.2009

Influenza-like illness and laboratory confirmed influenza from the Saga software

Influenza-like illness (ILI) and laboratory confirmed influenza is registered in the Icelandic software system named Saga software, which is used by all hospitals and primary health care centres in Iceland. An electronic channel, Hekla, has been activated for reporting influenza cases in cooperation with EMR, a private company that developed both Saga and Hekla.

Data on influenza cases are now automatically and electronically reported from all health care centres and hospitals in Iceland, the information is then automatically extracted from the Saga software and reported through the Hekla channel on a daily basis.

This registry enables surveillance of age and sex of the cases and real-time monitoring of the spread of influenza in Iceland. Information from the Saga software will be updated weekly on www.influensa.is, under Tölur um inflúensu (Influenza statistics), untill the influenza pandemic is over.

In Figure 1, cases of influenza-like illness and confirmed influenza from April 2009 are illustrated. During spring and early summer, most cases of confirmed influenza were seasonal influenza. Analysis of the data on influenza A(H1N1)v will be based on data from 29 June 2009 (week 27), but influenza A(H1N1)v can be assumed to be a common cause of influenza-like illness from that week onwards .

From 29 June – 20 August altogether 577 cases of influenza-like illness and confirmed influenza were reported through the Saga software, 262 males and 345 females. A rapid increase in the number of cases was observed during the last three weeks and a similar trend can be assumed during the weeks to come 

Figure 2

The Chief Epidemiologist for Iceland