A new health platform has been launched. Who is Sick is a community platform where you can talk about your sickness… I post this link because we are in some sort a health blog with a certain responsibility to pass on information on health issues. Moreover this platform can only work if many are ready to share.
It is a Google Maps mashup that provides current & local sickness
information to the public, without the need of dealing with hospitals
or doctors. users can post, discuss, search or analyze sickness trends
& outbreaks, varying between a runny nose, cough, muscle ache,
headache, fever & stomach ache (infoaesthetics).
You can check your area whether a flu is spreading or whether the allergy season has reached its climax, or whether the majority of the people currently suffers from headache after a night of heavy drinking
at the »October Fest« in Munich ;-). Of course, only if you are ready to share your pains with others and post it on whoissick.org.
What do you think? Is it just rubbish, just another blossom on the flourishing tree of community platforms that may fall off soon? Or does it make sense, because it may indicate to you an imminent endemic spread of a contagious diseases, may tell you where to avoid to go to. One case of bird flu might not hinder you to fly to China, whereas thousands may do so. Everybody nows how exaggerating news report can be.
Maybe you belong to those who trust your fellow sufferers more than experts, statistics and media reports. Nevertheless the good intention of this platform needs you because only many of us can make Who Is Sick a reliable source of information.
