A new app called Sickweather alerts users in real-time when they enter sick zones, from schools and airports to the workplace.
The iOS app, which is now available for iOS, uses reports of illness mentioned on social media, as well as Apple iOS's geofencing and notification technologies to crank out health alerts. This means if you enter an area with a high concentration of people complaining on social sites about the flu or a bad cough, you will receive a notification on your mobile device.
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CEO and co-founder Graham Dodge came up with the concept after battling a stomach virus two years ago.
"I didn't know if something was going around or if it was food poisoning, so I went on Facebook to see if any of my friends were experiencing the same symptoms," Dodge told Mashable. "Sure enough, I found a friend nearby who had also posted the same symptoms. It occurred to me that what I was doing could be done on a much larger scale using the APIs for Facebook and Twitter."
Sickweather searches Twitter and Facebook for public reports of illness and looks for phrases such as "my son has a high fever" and disqualifies ones like "I have Bieber fever." The platform processes about 600,000 mentions each month, which are then plotted on our map.


Dodge said a lot can be learned about how sickness is spreading across specific regions by looking at the tracked data.
"Right now, colds, cough and sore throats are topping the forecast in most regions in the U.S., but flu is still very mild," Dodge said. "We saw a spike in flu activity in the UK last month, but now the region is seeing more of what we're seeing in the U.S., which is likely attributed to a cold virus and/or strep throat."
The region between Washington, D.C., and Boston is what Dodge refers to as 'Contagion Alley' due to how quickly illnesses tend to spread there, its population density and proximity of several major cities. The Ohio Valley down into Kentucky is also notoriously bad, he added.
"We have no agenda as to what people should do once they get notifications, but if our alerts at least prompt someone to wash their hands a little more often, I think that will have a profound impact on the spread of illness," Dodge said. He eventually wants the app to become a "Waze for sickness," allowing users to report areas of sickness too.
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