The AUSFLU project is a collaborative endeavour involving the Australian Departments of Health and Ageing and Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, NSW Health, the University of Melbourne and Curtin University of Technology.

The project is being carried out by Dr Sam Beckett, an independent epidemiologist and Associate Director of Broadleaf.

AUSFLU is funded by the Australian Biosecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Disease.

Click here to download the AUSFLU flyer.

Click on any of the images below for the websites of our partners in this project.

What is AUSFLU?

AUSFLU provides a lifelike spatial simulation modelling environment that will allow public health researchers to study influenza and other infectious diseases, and test response strategies.  Simulation models are particularly useful for diseases that are new or emerging and therefore difficult to study in the field.

AUSFLU does not name people or places, but otherwise creates a working model of the underlying population.  It is a spatial model, which means that it uses mapping software to locate households, places of work, etc, and to move individuals around through their daily activities – it is at least as detailed in this regard as any infectious disease model in the world.

AUSFLU provides public health researchers with a range of sophisticated outputs — including maps, reports and plots.  AUSFLU was developed using Australian Census and other data for the City of Tamworth in northwest New South Wales, but can import population data for any other town up to a size of 200,000 individuals.

Click on the image below to view the Biosecurity Risk Management section of our website.

Click on the image below to view the Spatial Risk Modelling section of our website.

What is Pandemic Influenza?

Pandemic influenza is one of the most devastating diseases that the human population has ever faced.  More people died in the 1918/19 pandemic than were killed in the First World War.

We are currently facing a pandemic caused by the new influenza A H1N1 virus.  This virus is not particularly serious, but it might develop increased pathogenicity as it evolves and mutates within the global population.  We are also facing a threat from a very serious strain of bird flu (termed H5N1) that continues to circulate worldwide.  The fear is that this highly-pathogenic strain of influenza could combine with one of the circulating human strains — including the new H1N1 strain.  This might result in a virus that is both completely new (and thus able to slip past our defences) and extremely dangerous. This is why public health authorities worldwide are so concerned, and are motivated to prepare themselves by developing effective response strategies.

Click on this link for a recent ABC Radio interview about the AUSFLU project with Broadleaf Associate Director Dr Sam Beckett.

Click on the image below to view the AUSFLU flyer.

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