Twitter data accurately tracked Haiti cholera outbreak

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Twitter data accurately tracked Haiti cholera outbreak

Study finds online social media and news feeds were faster than, and broadly as accurate as, the official records at detecting the start and early progress of Haiti’s cholera epidemicThe informal information source Twitter was yielding data that would have been a quicker way of detecting and tracking the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti than traditional methods, according to a study. The study found that online social media and news feeds were faster than, and broadly as accurate as, the official records at detecting the start and early progress of the epidemic, which hit Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010 and has killed more than 6,500 people.