How Can Social Media Be Used to Track Disease Outbreaks?
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are treasure troves of real-time information. By using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms, researchers can analyze posts for keywords related to symptoms or disease names. This enables the identification of potential outbreaks before they are reported through traditional channels. For instance, the flu outbreak can be tracked by monitoring posts mentioning symptoms like "fever" and "cough."
