#Ebola and Twitter. What Insights Can Global Health Draw from Social Media?

Abstract

At the beginning of August 2014, after the first Ebola case was diagnosed in Nigeria, a Nigerian student posted a tweet urging the public to drink vast amounts of salty water in order to avoid catching the Ebola virusEbola virus. Later, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that two people died and twenty were hospitalised in the country because of excessive consumption of salty water.