Infectious disease research gets a boost from websites, blogs, and social media

While public health officials around the world are on alert about the pandemic potential of new disease threats, a team that includes Penn State University biologist Marcel Salathé is developing innovative new systems and techniques to track the spread of infectious diseases, with the help of news websites, blogs, and social media. Salathé  publishes an article in the 1 July 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, with colleagues from the Harvard Medical School, describing the advantages and challenges of “digital epidemiology” — a new field of increasing importance for tracking infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics by leveraging the widespread use of the Internet and mobile phones. “In the past year, the world has seen an emerging outbreak of two viruses with considerable pandemic potential: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and Avian Influenza A H7N9,” Salathé said. He explained that the former is similar to the virus responsible for...