Global monitoring of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through online surveys sampled from the Facebook user base.

Simultaneously tracking the global impact of COVID-19 is challenging because of regional variation in resources and reporting. Leveraging self-reported survey outcomes via an existing international social media network has the potential to provide standardized data streams to support monitoring and decision-making worldwide, in real time, and with limited local resources. The University of Maryland Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (UMD-CTIS), in partnership with Facebook, has invited daily cross-sectional samples from the social media platform's active users to participate in the survey since its launch on April 23, 2020.

Using digital surveillance tools for near real-time mapping of the risk of infectious disease spread.

Data from digital disease surveillance tools such as ProMED and HealthMap can complement the field surveillance during ongoing outbreaks. Our aim was to investigate the use of data collected through ProMED and HealthMap in real-time outbreak analysis. We developed a flexible statistical model to quantify spatial heterogeneity in the risk of spread of an outbreak and to forecast short term incidence trends.

Underrepresentation of Phenotypic Variability of 16p13.11 Microduplication Syndrome Assessed With an Online Self-Phenotyping Tool (Phenotypr): Cohort Study.

Background: 16p13.11 microduplication syndrome has a variable presentation and is characterized primarily by neurodevelopmental and physical phenotypes resulting from copy number variation at chromosome 16p13.11.

Mapping global variation in human mobility.

The geographic variation of human movement is largely unknown, mainly due to a lack of accurate and scalable data. Here we describe global human mobility patterns, aggregated from over 300 million smartphone users. The data cover nearly all countries and 65% of Earth's populated surface, including cross-border movements and international migration.

Tuberculosis and foreign-born populations in the United States: A mixed methods pilot study of media reporting and political identification.

Background: Media reporting on communicable diseases has been demonstrated to affect the perception of the public. Communicable disease reporting related to foreign-born persons has not yet been evaluated.

Objective: Examine how political leaning in the media affects reporting on tuberculosis (TB) in foreign-born persons.

Epidemiological data from the COVID-19 outbreak, real-time case information.

Cases of a novel coronavirus were first reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019 and have since spread across the world. Epidemiological studies have indicated human-to-human transmission in China and elsewhere. To aid the analysis and tracking of the COVID-19 epidemic we collected and curated individual-level data from national, provincial, and municipal health reports, as well as additional information from online reports.

Real-time Epidemic Forecasting: Challenges and Opportunities.

Infectious disease outbreaks play an important role in global morbidity and mortality. Real-time epidemic forecasting provides an opportunity to predict geographic disease spread as well as case counts to better inform public health interventions when outbreaks occur. Challenges and recent advances in predictive modeling are discussed here.

Estimation of Pneumonic Plague Transmission in Madagascar, August-November 2017.

Introduction: Between August and November 2017, Madagascar reported nearly 2500 cases of plague; the vast majority of these cases were pneumonic, resulting in early exponential growth due to person-to-person transmission. Though plague is endemic in Madagascar, cases are usually bubonic and thus result in considerably smaller annual caseloads than those observed from August-November 2017.

Methods: In this study, we consider the transmission dynamics of pneumonic plague in Madagascar during this time period, as well as the role of control strategies that were deployed to curb the outbreak and their effectiveness.

Evaluation of the EpiCore outbreak verification system.

Objective: To describe a crowdsourced disease surveillance project (EpiCore) and evaluate its usefulness in obtaining information regarding potential disease outbreaks.

Methods: Volunteer human, animal and environmental health professionals from around the world were recruited to EpiCore and trained to provide early verification of health threat alerts in their geographical region via a secure, easy-to-use, online platform. Experts in the area of emerging infectious diseases sent requests for information on unverified health threats to these volunteers, who used local knowledge and expertise to respond to requests.

Predicting social response to infectious disease outbreaks from internet-based news streams.

Infectious disease outbreaks often have consequences beyond human health, including concern among the population, economic instability, and sometimes violence. A warning system capable of anticipating social disruptions resulting from disease outbreaks is urgently needed to help decision makers prepare appropriately. We designed a system that operates in near real-time to identify and predict social response.

Temporal Topic Modeling to Assess Associations between News Trends and Infectious Disease Outbreaks.

In retrospective assessments, internet news reports have been shown to capture early reports of unknown infectious disease transmission prior to official laboratory confirmation. In general, media interest and reporting peaks and wanes during the course of an outbreak. In this study, we quantify the extent to which media interest during infectious disease outbreaks is indicative of trends of reported incidence.

Internet-based media coverage on dengue in Sri Lanka between 2007 and 2015.

Background: Internet-based media coverage to explore the extent of awareness of a disease and perceived severity of an outbreak at a national level can be used for early outbreak detection. Dengue has emerged as a major public health problem in Sri Lanka since 2009.

Objective: To compare Internet references to dengue in Sri Lana with references to other diseases (malaria and influenza) in Sri Lanka and to compare Internet references to dengue in Sri Lanka with notified cases of dengue in Sri Lanka.

Mapping global environmental suitability for Zika virus.

Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947 and is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which also act as vectors for dengue and chikungunya viruses throughout much of the tropical world. In 2007, an outbreak in the Federated States of Micronesia sparked public health concern. In 2013, the virus began to spread across other parts of Oceania and in 2015, a large outbreak in Latin America began in Brazil.