Gathering data from the internet, social media, blog posts, news, and government sites is continually ongoing to help develop predictive models to map the spread of Zika. Experts discussed the issue at a House briefing hosted in June 2016 by the AAAS www.aaas.org Office of Government Relations with support from the Dana Foundation www.dana.org and in conjunction with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus.
John Brownstein Chief Innovation Officer for Boston Children’s Hospital and a Harvard Medical School Professor, www.childrenshospital.org reports that his researchers have been collecting patient-generated information from alternative data sources and converting the data into an early warning system.
Brownstein said, “This field called digital disease detection has been emerging over a decade or so. It can transform the way we get insights into public health issues and also enables researchers to track a virus from location to location.
He added, “Online tools including smart maps built from government transportation data and other online health statistics plus the use of mobile phone apps able to collect patient information. This information enables scientists and researchers to look at the material for insights about symptoms, dates, times, and the location of infection. The data is augmented with patient driven information and up-to-date reports from medical teams and health organizations.
CDC www.cdc.gov provides information on the Zika virus to the public. The CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) provides information http://emergency.cdc.gov/han to the news media, social media, hotlines, and provides updates to web pages.
With the data gathered, CDC is immediately able to communicate concerns about Zika transmission, information on the first suspected or confirmed cases of local transmission of Zika infections, and then provide data to health officials and the public on subsequent cases in the U.S.
CDC also provides a Laboratory Response Network (LRN) http://emergency.cdc.gov/lrn that maintains a network of not only U.S. labs but also international laboratories capable of responding to public health emergencies.
CDC is continually creating and updating emergency risk communication plans. CDC also shares information on urgent public health incidents concerning Zika with public information officers, federal, state, territorial, and local public health practitioners, international health organizations, clinicians, and public health laboratories.
To help accomplish dispersing information and to help develop preparedness and response plans, CDC is providing $25 million to be awarded to 53 state, city, and territorial health departments in areas at risk for outbreaks of the virus.
In addition, CDC is also hosting a series of “Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) teleconferences at http://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/zika-teleconferences.asp.