Social Media as a Way to Track Epidemics

     According to an article on the Voice of America website, Harvard Medical School in association with Children’s Hospital Boston found that social media and news reports can accurately track the growth of epidemics such as the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010, while also delivering data faster than government agencies.
   
     When epidemics begin, hospitals and clinics begin sending official reports to agencies such as the Ministry of Public Health, while at the same time stories concerning the epidemics are relayed on news reports as well as social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter. As Rumi Chunara confirms in her official research published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the informal media—meaning Facebook, Twitter, and news sources—do a fairly reliable job of tracking official reports. For instance, as the official number of reported cases of an epidemic rises, so does the amount of informal media coverage; and when the official number of reported cases of an epidemic falls, so does the amount of informal media coverage.
   
     We can’t solely rely on informal media reports to keep us informed about official epidemic coverage, however. Official statistics reported to agencies such as the Ministry of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are carefully validated and go through a rigorous evaluation process. In contrast, news and social media reports don’t have a validation process, however they are available more quickly. Each has its place—informal media to indicate a general understanding of epidemiological patterns in real time giving the ability to deploy control measures faster and official statistics as a way to accurately track the spread, official cases, and (hopefully) eradication of any given epidemic.