Technology that will save you from swine flu
Doctors may not have solved the H1N1 virus yet, but techies are scrambling to topple the latest global scourge. Paranoid? Stop the plague du jour before it stops you with these handy sites and apps aimed at swine flu prevention.
Handhelds
Software developers IntuApps wants to save frequent fliers' lives with an iPhone app that tracks the spread of epidemics in real time. The app does three things: displays current threats as determined by the World Health Organization; drops pins on Google Maps to display the locations of confirmed or suspected cases; tracks and reports on related news worldwide. Look for this app at the Apple Store soon. Sorry, Blackberry fanatics, no swine flu prevention app for you. Yet.
Websites
HealthMap aggregates news feeds from key sites, including the WHO, Google News and ProMed , mapping all disease outbreaks. A really cool (given the circumstances) widget uses a heat index to show how bad certain situations have become, giving you a clear idea of how much you should panic. The site also maps all known outbreaks of sicknesses like malaria, dengue fever and, of course, swine flu.
Social Media
If you're a swine flu prevention fanatic with O.C.D. you can sign up to Twitter, key "swine flu" into Twitter Search and let it run. You should be inundated within minutes with tweets on the virus.
If you feel compelled to read every post on swine flu prevention, and if your Blackberry data plan can handle the overload, follow @stopswineflu for a direct line to all the latest tweets about swine flu. You can even add @trackswine for more location-based updates on outbreaks across the globe to help with your swine flu prevention program. Either that or just stay home.
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