MEDICAL NEWS TODAY                                                    June 2, 2015
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Last year, in the 3 days before the outbreak was officially announced, over 60 million people received tweets about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, say the authors of a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control that investigates the useful role that Twitter can play in outbreak monitoring and control.

In the 3 days prior to Nigeria's official announcement about Ebola, Twitter users had already shared around 1,500 tweets about the outbreak....

Social media allow users to play active roles in spreading news. Users can share insights, opinions, fears and ideas, outside the contexts of conventional public health channels.

For their study, two researchers from Columbia University School of Nursing in New York, analyzed Ebola-related tweets posted over a week in the early stages of the West African outbreak - from July 24th to August 1st 2014....

Before official announcements were made by the Nigerian authorities, the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people were sharing news about Ebola cases via Twitter.

In the 3 days prior to the Nigerian Ministry of Health's official announcement of the country's first confirmed case of Ebola, Twitter users had already shared around 1,500 tweets about Ebola.

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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/294708.php

What can we learn about the Ebola outbreak from tweets?

 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL            June 1, 2015

http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553%2815%2900137-6/fulltext