Big Data and social media: surveillance of networks as management tool

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate if it’s possible to predict epidemiological patterns through data obtained from surveilling social media. For this analysis, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Youtube and blogs were surveilled in Santa Catarina State, Brazil between January 24th and February 27th, 2016. Rumors about dengue, chikungunya, zika, Aedes aegypti, and microcephaly were collected and correlated to the number of suspected, confirmed, and discarded cases settled by the Vigilância Epidemiológica de Santa Catarina (Dive) in the same period. The results show that there is a strong correlation between the variables and that the surveillance of the social networks can be used as a predictive model for health professionals and public managers.

Keywords:
Social Media; Big Data; Dengue; Zika; Chikungunya; Aedes aegypti