Talk:2009 swine flu pandemic in Australia

See also: File talk:H1N1 Australia Map.svg, File talk:H1N1 Australia Confirmed Map.svg, File talk:H1N1 Australia Type Map.svg, and File talk:H1N1 Australia Death Map.svg

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2020 and 20 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Astrokassie.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:05, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Why a separate article?

There are no confirmed cases in Australia. The impact of swine flu in Australia is practically nil. There are also about 30 references in this article saying nothing significant has happened. Comments please. Wallie (talk) 05:53, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

That there are so many references from reliable sources makes the topic notable. There is a fairly large number of people being tested. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:57, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Is it as important as the 2002 Bali bombings? (In my opinion not). There are about the same number of references. Wallie (talk) 13:41, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I actually agree with Wallie and was going to raise this issue myself. I do not see any real need/point of having this separate article for Australia at the moment as there are only a few unconfirmed cases of the virus, with none confirmed and thankfully no fatalities thus far in the country. Personally, I think a section in the main 2009 swine flu outbreak by country would have been sufficient. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 14:29, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) I agree as well. Some consistency needs to be found with the "in <country>" articles on this swine flu outbreak; and the criterion seems to be at least one confirmed case of the virus within the country in question. As of now, Australia does not meet that criterion. It is therefore my conjecture that this article should be merged with the corresponding section at 2009 swine flu outbreak by country. —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 15:09, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

New Zealand has a number of confirmed cases and does not have its own article, and nor should it. What concerns me is that once a country has an article, it seems to grow (like a virus). The Australian one is becoming so large that it may be too late to put it back to the main "by country" article. Wallie (talk) 05:41, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The 2009 Wikiflu article outbreak? Have to create an article for that. :-) Johnmc (talk) 10:18, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget the 2009 Wikiflu article outbreak in Australia article too. Wallie (talk) 05:56, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

If people don't like the fact that the article exists, it can be put to a vote for deletion. I, personally, would vote KEEP. mike40033 (talk) 00:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Why does Australia have it's own article, in my opinion its a waste of time full with useless information regarding the flu, considering there has been no one affected in this country. New Zealand has confirmed cases and doesn't have its own article and nor should it, I feel this article should be deleted as it is pointless. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.155.37.101 (talk) 00:45, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

As there is no confirmed "2009 swine flu in Australia", I suggest moving the article to "2009 swine flu responses in Australia", to reflect the content. Any alternative suggestions? --Zigger «º» 06:16, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Merging and redirecting the page? —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 06:21, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Map completely wrong

The map showing suspected cases completely fails to tally with the table of suspected cases by state. Unfortunately, I don't know to fix this... mike40033 (talk) 00:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

I tried to change the map on commons with a new version, but it does not show up any different here. How to update, is download the file and edit it with wordpad, suspect case=yellow use #ffa900, for grey (no case) use rgb(185,185,185), (or #b9b9b9 for detected, red use #ff0000. The classic program to use is Inkscape. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:16, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

it seems to be fixed now, whether it was you or someone else. Thanks for the tip on editing SVG files... mike40033 (talk) 01:09, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

First confirmed case

Link. Timeshift (talk) 00:46, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

May 24 map revision

There's a big problem with the new map version, no one has updated the other languages to take into account the new colour key. It should just have been created as a new image file instead. This file is used in multiple Wikipedias, not just the English one.

70.29.208.129 (talk) 21:15, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

I have updated Spanish and French, are there any more? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:28, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Also used on pl:Rozprzestrzenianie się grypy H1N1 w 2009 roku also updated. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:37, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Australia maps

• 
  H1N1 Australia Map.svg
  hybrid map
• 
  H1N1 Australia Type Map.svg
  case type map
• 
  H1N1 Australia Confirmed Map.svg
  confirmed cases map

70.29.208.129 (talk) 11:15, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

so... this article uses the two standard maps... while the by country article uses the hybrid map. Additionally, French uses the two standard maps, Romanian uses the hybrid map, Spanish uses the confirmed map. 70.29.208.129 (talk) 10:52, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I wouldn't use the two that show suspect cases for Tas and NT at the moment because they're based on old references. But I'm just keeping them up to date as references allow. Mark Hurd (talk)

Where is that Romanian page? Now the hybrid is the same as the confirmed map (until someone dies then a decision will have to be made). Graeme Bartlett (talk) 06:16, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Whoops, sorry, I meant Polish. It's at pl:Rozprzestrzenianie się grypy H1N1 w 2009 roku ; I don't know why I wrote Romanian... 70.29.208.129 (talk) 10:51, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

File usage can be determined by using the ToolServer ... 70.29.208.129 (talk) 10:53, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Suspected cases being tested no longer being reported

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, reports this just before 3 minutes into this news conference: [1]

If that does remain the case in 24 hours, we should pull the suspected column here and the total mentioned at Template:2009 swine flu outbreak table. Mark Hurd (talk) 13:57, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Graph

Ok guys, per suggestions by Graeme Bartlett, a chart for disease progression is now available. Have a look at Talk:2009 swine flu outbreak in Australia/workpage.

70.29.208.129 (talk) 09:39, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Update of Confirmed Cases

Please could somebody update the number of confirmed cases to 1006; with the following statistics from each territory. ACT 5, NSW 75, SA 9, Qld 32, Tas 6, Vic 874, WA 2, NT 3.

Source: [[2]ency/publishing.nsf/Content/health-swine_influenza-index.htm#cases05june Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing.]

WA now has a total of 4. [3],[4] - cyclosarin (talk) 08:25, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Bargraph

So should this be placed to the article? (It will require moving the code over, since the subpage is a workpage, and not appropriate for transclusion) 70.29.212.226 (talk) 10:24, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

It is in the article already! At the bottom of the box, an expandable graph. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 06:58, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I meant move the code over, since AFAIK, a workpage or sandbox isn't supposed to be transcluded in article space. Contributions/70.29.212.226 (talk) 09:42, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Hybrid map

• 
  H1N1 Australia Map.svg
  hybrid map
• 
  H1N1 United Kingdom Map - Region 3.svg
  hybrid map

Here's an idea for the hybrid map, for when/if a death occurs... the new UK hybrid map uses black roundels with the death count inside it atop the region where the death occured, and the underlying map is the confirmed cases map. It might be a bit difficult for Canberra... and the numbers are hard to read unless you blow up the map to full-size...

Or not...

70.29.212.226 (talk) 13:07, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

WA death

A Western Australian has died, while having swine flu, not 100% sure if it was a result of swine flu though. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/19/2603492.htm Black.jeff (talk) 08:33, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Death was in SA.--Grahame (talk) 11:00, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Yeah it was a Western Australian who died in hospital in Adelaide, so SA [5]. cyclosarin (talk) 12:13, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

And was a case in NT for a while too. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:36, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Suspected cases

No updates appear to be being notified and presumably those listed as suspected on 27 May have been ruled one way or the other since. These old figures should be removed.--Grahame (talk) 06:50, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Tasmania has been releaseing suspect cases in their media releases, but the columns is really stale. It was good when the actual conformed cases were 0. Do you want to remove the column yourself? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:32, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

I have made them all n/a so that any up to date figures can be inserted if they come available.--Grahame (talk) 08:14, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed cases scale

  5000+ Cases

  500+ Confirmed cases

  50+ Confirmed cases

  5-49 Confirmed cases

  1-4 Confirmed cases

  None

User:MSGJ has expressed concern that the 50+ and 500+ shades of red are too close together, and they should be changed. He has told me that they appear the same on his system. 70.29.212.226 (talk) 04:36, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes it need careful inspection. Is there a standard for the USA images? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:21, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

The US scale has changed a several times...

2000+ cases   500+ cases   100+ cases   1+ cases

1000+ cases   500+ cases   100+ cases   1+ cases

500+ cases   50+ cases   5+ cases   1+ cases

5000+ confirmed cases   500+ confirmed cases   50+ confirmed cases   5+ confirmed cases   1+ confirmed cases

70.29.212.226 (talk) 11:08, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

The Red-Scale:

This is purely red, whereas the current scales are not purely red.

Extended:

70.29.212.226 (talk) 11:20, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

or

or

How's that? 70.29.208.69 (talk) 22:08, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Aust swine flu death map.JPG

File:Aust swine flu death map.JPG

Aust swine flu death map.JPG

A new map has shown up... Image:Aust swine flu death map.JPG

70.29.208.69 (talk) 06:47, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Death map numbers.JPG

File:Death map numbers.JPG

Death map numbers.JPG

And another one... Image:Death map numbers.JPG

70.29.208.69 (talk) 06:50, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

---

Even if notable, why is this important?

While it is clear that this subject is notable, based upon the stupendous volume of reportage generated, I can see nothing in this article indicating why this topic is important. The "context" section does set it nicely into context, indicating that the current "pandemic" is about 1% of the severity of the usual seasonal flu outbreak. Maybe there are reasons that this is being reported on so much, but I don't know what they are. I'm sure any readers of this article would appreciate some enlightenment. cojoco (talk) 11:50, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Just reminding you all

The NT needs to be updated in the cases image (500+ cases for NT - 530). Rory (reply on my page!) (talk) 10:45, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Uploading now. You may be able to fix this yourself! Do you have wordpad? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:33, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah. Why? Rory (reply on my page!) (talk) 00:41, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

You can download the .svg format file and edit it with wordpad as it is a text format. For the image you mention, the fill instruction for the state needs its colour changed. For the death map the style for the state needs to be listed in the appropriate style section. Then the image must be uploaded with the same name at commons. However I will keep maintaining the images if no one else beats me to it. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:50, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

timeline?

The Canada article has a timeline like the continent articles do, should Australia also have one? 76.66.202.123 (talk) 03:56, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Misleading section?

Where it reads:

There are on average 2,500-3,000 deaths every year as a result of seasonal influenza in Australia. An estimated 1 billion are infected seasonally, throughout the world. In Australia, 36,991 swine flu tests have given positive results and there have been 186 confirmed deaths of people infected with swine flu as of 21 October 2009.

Someone might think that 186 deaths are not much compared to 2,500-3,000, but I'm betting the 2,500-3,000 count is estimated in a similar way to the CDC's 36,000 count in the US. It's really apples and oranges.

If you go to trends.google.com and query "cough" (narrowed for Australia) it's clear that they had an unusual season, peaking around June. Joseph449008 (talk) 13:55, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

You say "It's really apples and oranges", but I don't understand why: should we not compare the 186 deaths from swine 'flu with the 2,500-3,000 from seasonal 'flu? I still do not understand why Swine 'flu has such widespread coverage in the media, and my question above to this effect was pretty much ignored. Given the amount of media coverage for this disease, it is small wonder that there was a burst of interest recorded by Google trends. Has Google Trends become a reliable measure of epidemics now? I think not. cojoco (talk) 19:53, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, where does the 2,500-3,000 estimate come from? In the US, the CDC estimate is 36,000 deaths annually, but that's an estimate of total excess deaths due to the flu. See here. It's not a count of confirmed cases. If you only count deaths reported as being caused by the flu, the death toll is probably more like 500 a year. Bottom line, you can't compare "lab-confirmed deaths" with an estimate of total excess deaths attributable to the flu and complications of the flu, reported and unreported. As to the Google Trends thing, that's why I used a word like "cough." I suppose it's possible people Googled "cough" as a result of H1N1 hype. I don't think it's probable. You can also look at the trends for "flu" and "h1n1" - the pattern doesn't quite match up. Joseph449008 (talk) 01:32, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Why do we need to have 'confirmed cases'? Are you disagreeing with the methodology of the CDC, an extremely well-regarded organization, for estimating the number of Influenza deaths in the United States? Would you prefer to replace it with some measure related to the number of times Google sees the word "cough" ? I really can't understand the point you are trying to get across. cojoco (talk) 06:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

The confirmed cases was a hangover from when there were only suspected cases, and then it had to be distinguished from other flu types. After a while the confirmed cases just showed how diligent the testing was since only a tiny fraction of cases were tested. And agencies stopped providing updates. The number of deaths is probably a better indication of the severity at the peak. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:04, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

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Howdy

Hey everyone, I'm an undergrad student working on this page as a project in my Technical and Professional editing course. If anyone is still following this page and has any suggestions on how it can be improved, let me know! I've been making small edits to get myself acquainted with Wikipedia but will be working on some bigger ones soon. This whole page seems to be frozen in time in 2009 so right now I'm just trying to change it to not sound so "current". Astrokassie (talk) 02:35, 9 March 2020 (UTC)