A sophisticated biosurveillance network called the Automated Epidemiologic Geotemporal Integrated Surveillance system (AEGIS), designed to detect the spread of regional epidemics and bioterrorism, has shed new light on how the flu is spread. The system, designed by the Children’s Hospital Boston, collects data from emergency rooms in eight Boston-area hospitals, tracks symptoms and compares them to historical trends in real time. When an anomaly appears, an alert is sent to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The graphic below shows that when it comes to spreading flu, preschoolers excel early and often.
