Why is it in news?

Facebook accounts and telephone records can be used to pinpoint the best individuals to vaccinate to stop a disease outbreak in its tracks, researchers say.

Details

• Assuming there is an outbreak, and not enough vaccines for every person in the world, immunizing socially ell connected would remove social bridges by which germs can spread.
• The study, which tracked the digital and physical contacts of more than 500 university students, concluded that people ho are central in their digital networks are also central in their real-life human networks.
• If a person is a hub for his/her friends in the sense that if they have many contacts via phone calls or on facebook, making them a bridge between diverse communities, chances are high that they are also likely to be a bridge to connect those communities in case of an epidemic.
• Such individuals can be tracked by understanding online contacts. Using computer modeling, the research calculated that vaccinating these ‘central’ individuals would be almost as efficient as the most optimal existing vaccination strategies.
• It is also easier and cheaper, as digital activity is easier to trac
• This technique achieves something called as a “Herd Immunity”, hereby; unvaccinated people are increasingly unlikely to come into contact with an infectious individual.

Conclusion

Utilization of this method is particularly more beneficial especially in cases of countries such as India, where penetration of vaccines is low, especially in rural pockets, and mitigation strategies in an event of an epidemic are often harder and expensive to enforce. This could also be one of the best uses of social media too. Governments and related organizations must consider potential strategies like these so that more lives can be saved and potential epidemics can be thwarted on time.

Source: Pune Mirrior