An Effective Approach to Track Levels of Influenza-A (H1N1) Pandemic in India Using Twitter

Abstract

India is one of the fasted economies in the world, having the second largest population. Communicable diseases in the 21st century remain a major public health threat due to the globalization. The emergence of new diseases and the reappearance of older infectious disease cause great impact towards public health. It is very important to monitor this disease early and take a rapid decision to overcome the damage. In this paper, we suggest an approach based on tweets using Twitter to make a good surveillance system. We examine important issues related to 2015 H1N1 pandemic in India like symptoms, prevention steps and availability of medicine. Our study focused on different parameters to find the relevant information towards Influenza-A (H1N1) and the public general awareness towards it. Our analysis shows the use of twitter may allow the detection of disease outbreaks through analysis of data generated by social media.