Twitter exposed epidemic in Haiti before health officials

Twitter was an important tool in crisis of political nature, especially, in recent times, in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Now the social network has even proved useful in crisis of health. A study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showed that Twitter actually provided early evidence for an outbreak of cholera in Haiti in 2010. Twitter and other Internet sources of news were able to track the disease faster than health officials. The report’s lead author, Rumi Chunara, Ph.D, said, "We can definitely use these sources to get early information about how a disease is spreading, and consequently help inform control or response efforts sooner." The tweets provided information that was only reported by health officials, until two weeks later. Click here for full story