Now, social media can help forecast infectious disease outbreaks

The Internet-based findings on exposure patterns are in good agreement with those derived from traditional epidemiological surveillance data, which can be available after considerable delays.

New Delhi: A new study has suggested that social media and internet can be helpful in predicting infectious disease outbreaks.

"Our study offers proof of concept that publicly available online reports released in real-time by ministries of health, local surveillance systems, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and authoritative media outlets are useful to identify key information on exposure and transmission patterns during epidemic emergencies," researchers said.

"Our Internet-based findings on exposure patterns are in good agreement with those derived from traditional epidemiological surveillance data, which can be available after considerable delays," they said.

Mathematical models forecasting disease transmission are often used to guide public health control strategies, but they can be difficult to formulate during the early stages of an outbreak when accurate data are scarce, according to the researchers from the Georgia State University in the US.

"In the absence of detailed epidemiological information rapidly available from traditional surveillance systems, alternative data streams are worth exploring to gain a reliable understanding of disease dynamics in the early stages of an outbreak," they said.

To test the reliability of alternative data streams, researchers tracked and analysed reports from public health authorities and reputable media outlets posted via social media or their websites during the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in South Korea.

(With PTI inputs)