Responding to heightened influenza, COVID-19, and RSV activity and the ongoing H5N1 threat, BlueDot’s latest product release empowers clients with actionable insights from advanced wastewater detection and in-depth reporting on avian influenza.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the ILI season is off to a fast start. The United States is currently experiencing the largest summer wave of COVID-19 since 2022 and overall ILI activity is 109% higher than the five-year pre-pandemic average, putting continued strain on healthcare facilities, medical countermeasure supply chains, and enterprises experiencing employee absenteeism and in-house outbreaks.
The heightened risk this season is further compounded by avian influenza which continues to circulate in the wild and among dairy farms and cause poultry outbreaks. As of September 5, 2024, 13 cases of H5N1 have recently been reported in humans the United States. A strong ILI season introduces more opportunities for the current H5N1 strain to mix with human influenza strains, raising the possibility of a new strain emerging with pandemic potential. Comprehensive surveillance is required to understand and respond to this threat.
To further our mission to help society identify, anticipate, and respond to emerging disease outbreaks faster than ever before, BlueDot has taken decisive action by enhancing our ILI intelligence with wastewater insights and introducing comprehensive expert reporting on avian influenza.
Introducing: Wastewater insights
With BlueDot, clients now have on-demand access to early warning of emerging ILI trends and outbreaks through a powerful new data source: wastewater. This wastewater intelligence, available in the United States down to the state-level, delivers insights almost one week ahead of the CDC’s NWSS. Pre-transformed from raw data, it provides actionable metrics such as week-over-week and year-over-year percentage changes, viral level categorization, and more.
With the addition of wastewater surveillance to the thousands of sources that BlueDot already collects, validates, and contextualizes, we offer a comprehensive view of emerging ILI activity in the United States and beyond. Available on-demand or embedded into expert-written content, clients will be able to seamlessly add wastewater surveillance data directly into their own disease surveillance and risk assessment workflows.
Introducing: Avian Influenza Pulse Reports
The ongoing avian influenza outbreak requires vigilance and monitoring across public and private sectors to mitigate the risk of this burning threat becoming an epidemic with serious human consequences. To help clients navigate the evolving outbreak, BlueDot is proud to announce a new weekly Avian Influenza Pulse Report. Avian Influenza Pulse Reports provide a weekly overview of emerging and ongoing avian influenza activity across humans and animals around the globe, including week-over-week trends, data visualizations, rapid risk assessments, research updates and embedded expert commentary. They combine intelligence across hundreds of disparate sources into a single, actionable view of how the ongoing outbreak is changing over time so that clients can quickly assess the impact to their mandate and respond swiftly where and if needed.
BlueDot is committed to supporting clients to identify, anticipate, and respond to disruptive disease activity throughout the ILI season. The inclusion of wastewater intelligence in our global disease surveillance platform and the launch of the Avian Influenza Pulse Reports demonstrates our commitment to evolving with emerging outbreaks. This ensures that every organization has the crucial information needed to assess risk and take informed action.
