Keeping track of influenza through the web
Bad weather means fever, cough, earache and more other symptoms. Flu, in a word. To monitor the trend of this illness, in Europe there is Influenzanet, a network where people can share their own symptoms, thus playing an active role in data collection. Data that scientists may then study, to analyze every anomaly in a more accurate way. “When somebody joins the system, he fills out a form with some information about him: gender, age, zip code and so on,” explains Daniela Paolotti, project