Story maps
故事地圖

Human Swine Flu [Influenza A(H1N1)] hit the news headlines in April 2009. The infection has since been spreading rapidly across the world, and over 100 countries were affected by June. The Map shows the week-by-week diffusion of the infection in the first three months of the epidemic. The virus landed on Mexico, North America and Western Europe in the first couple of weeks, followed by other countries in all continents. Interestingly, some countries have remained unscathed in early July - North Korea, Central Asia and some African countries. This may be explained by the relative lack of communication between these countries and the western world, or reporting delay.

Data for the maps were downloaded from World Health Organization website (which stopped updating the national statistics in early July), and Centre for Health Protection, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

零九年四月，人類豬流感初次走上報章頭條。往後的三個月，豬流感快速擴散全球，到六月已影響超過一百個國家。圖示首三個月內，每周豬流感滲透各國的情況。病毒首先在墨西哥，北美洲和西歐登陸，然後逐漸散播到五大洲其它國家。有趣地，到了七月初，一些國家仍然未受影響，當中包括北韓、中亞和非洲多國。究其原因，這些國家和西方社會的連繫可能較疏，令病毒沒有空間滲透。呈報延誤是另一可能性。

地圖資料源自世界衛生組織網頁（世衛七月初停止上載各國有關資料），及香港特區政府衛生防護中心。