Ebola was flagged up by computer software nine days BEFORE it was announced: HealthMap used social media to spot disease

Home »Ebola was flagged up by computer software nine days BEFORE it was announced: HealthMap used social media to spot disease

Ebola was flagged up by computer software nine days BEFORE it was announced: HealthMap used social media to spot disease

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A 'mystery haemorrhagic fever' was flagged up by software nine days before the World Health Organisation formally announced the Ebola epidemic.

The fever was seen developing in the forested areas of southeastern Guinea by a free online tool known as HealthMap on March 19.

The US group behind the software started putting out alerts and providing information to the World Health Organisation, which reported its first confirmed case of Ebola on March 23.

Zoom in on the interactive map to see areas affected by the Ebola outbreak. Move the markers on the bottom bar to change the date

EBOLA VIRUS 'EASY TO CONTAIN' SAYS MAN WHO DISCOVERED IT

Professor Peter Piot, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who also discovered the Ebola virus, said the disease. is 'in theory easy to contain'.

'Well it's spectacular because once you get it, at least with this strain of Ebola, you've got like a 90 per cent chance of dying,' he told CNN.

'That's spectacular by any standard – one of the most lethal viruses that exist. On the other hand, you need really close contact to become infected.

'So just being on the bus with someone with Ebola, that's not a problem. It's also not iatrogenic [ph] so it's not transmitted through, you know, droplets and so on. So it is really something that in theory is easy to contain.'

Since then, the HealthMap team has created an interactive Ebola map, free to use by anyone who wants to see where the disease is spreading.

The interactive map, run by scientists in Boston, uses algorithms to scour tens of thousands of social media sites, local news and government websites to detect and track disease outbreaks.

It then filters out irrelevant data to identify dangerous diseases and map their locations with the help of health experts.

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'It shows some of these informal sources are helping paint a picture of what's happening that's useful to these public health agencies,' said HealthMap co-founder John Brownstein.

HealthMap is operated by a group of 45 researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Boston Children's Hospital.

The tool was introduced in 2006 for public health specialists, but that changed as the system evolved and the public became increasingly hungry for information during the swine flu pandemic.

HealthMap generates information that includes locations of specific outbreaks and tracks new cases and deaths. The system is also capable of logging public sentiment.

Users can zoom in on specific countries and regions on the map, with markers showing where the main cases have been reported.

Clicking on a marker directs the users to news reports of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, a scroll bar at the bottom of the map allows you to track the progress of the disease by clicking on key dates.

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A 'mystery haemorrhagic fever' was flagged up by software nine days before the World Health Organisation formally announced the Ebola epidemic. The fever was seen developing in the forested areas of southeastern Guinea by a free online tool known as HealthMap on March 19, as shown on this screenshot of the HealthMap

The group behind the software started putting out alerts and providing information to the World Health Organisation, which reported its first confirmed case of Ebola on March 23. By then, the map had tracked 29 cases in Guinea and 29 deaths - all reported by sources such as social media and local government sites

HealthMap uses social media to help track Ebola

HOW THE VIRUS SPREADS

Ebola emerged in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are several strains which vary in how dangerous they are to humans, but death rates have reached as high as 90 per cent.

In the current outbreak that is just over 50 per cent. It is introduced into humans through direct contact with the blood, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals including fruit bats, which are eaten as a delicacy.

The virus then spreads between humans through direct contact with blood, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.

Symptoms include fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

People are infectious as long as their blood and bodily fluids contain the virus and the incubation period can range between two and 21 days.

Although the disease has no cure, modern medical treatment and quick isolation help hugely to bring the death toll down.

Source: World Health Organisation

The Ebola outbreak, the largest and longest ever recorded for the disease, has so far killed more than 950 people.

The map shows how it emerged in Guinea in March and has since spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Hospitals in Europe are now preparing for the possible spread of Ebola out of Africa as the World Health Organisation said a vaccine could be 'rushed through' by early next year.

Doctors at the specialised quarantine unit at Berlin's Charite hospital today showed off their readiness, amid news that two Germans could be carrying the deadly virus.

Dr Brad Crotty, a clinical informatics expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre who is not part of HealthMap, told the Boston Herald there is still work to be done to tune out 'background noise'.

'You can get early signs, but they're not always right,' Dr Crotty said.

Sumiko Mekaru, who oversees HealthMap operations, said it's meant to be used alongside conventional health reports rather than replace them.

The HealthMap team are now working on software to allow researchers to forecast where an outbreak is headed and when ahead of this coming flu season.

The HealthMap team are now working on software to allow researchers to forecast where an outbreak is headed and when ahead of this coming flu season. Pictured here are cases of Ebola outbreak on July 21. Clicking on the markers provides the user with information on where the cases were reported

HealthMap generates information that includes locations of specific outbreaks and tracks new cases and deaths. The system is also capable of logging public sentiment. Users can zoom in on specific countries and regions on the map, with markers showing where the main cases have been identified

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