Our interconnected world increases the risk of cross-border contagion and global outbreaks of zoonotic diseases like avian flu and swine flu. Babel Street Insights, an open-source intelligence platform, can help public health officials spot and track outbreaks of infectious disease. Using Insights to search and monitor social media, public health officials can detect spikes in the use of words associated with epidemics and pandemics. This can give them an important head start in understanding and preventing public health crises.
