EpidemicsSocial media, a double-edged sword in epidemics

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have proven useful in quickly disseminating information, and raising awareness during disasters or disease outbreaks, but these tools can also be a double-edged sword. 

Global health officials warn that social media sites often spread rumors or false information that are difficult to correct.

Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said, “I can assure you that with the rise of social media, the background noises for rumors have become much louder and making it so much harder to detect the really important segments.”

Keji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general, echoed Chan’s thoughts pointing to rumors circulating around the Internet on how to build immunity against the H1N1 swine flu during the 2009-2010 outbreak.

“One of the rumors which started was that if you increase your salt intake it can help,” Fukuda said.

According to Fukuda, the agency was forced to correct the rumor, using social media, because taking in too much salt can be dangerous.

“The availability of information is better than in the past, and I think this is positive,” Fukuda said. “On the other hand, in social media anybody can say anything so it’s also possible that you have a lot of miscommunication mixed in with correct information.”

Regardless, the usefulness of social media cannot be ignored and the WHO now carefully monitors online forums and social media sites around the world to find any potential warning signs of an outbreak.

In addition, Chan said social media helps increase transparency and ensure that major outbreaks are detected.

“[Social media] also makes it extremely hard for any country to hide a public health threat of international concern.”