How Social Networks Can Affect Infectious Disease Control: An Experience From Northwest Iran

To the Editor—Social networks are a recent phenomenon of technology that affects all aspects of life, including infectious disease, and it has become increasingly important to understand their features and limitations. ¹ Also, information, trends, behaviors and even health states may spread between contacts in a social network, similar to disease transmission. However, information that propagates through social networks can carry a lot of false claims. For example, rumors on certain topics can propagate rapidly, leading to a large number of nodes reporting the same (incorrect) observations. ²

In February 2015, a 35-year-old fruit seller with acute respiratory infection was hospitalized with some sign of hemoptysis in a Tabriz health center in northwest Iran. Because of suspected contact with the Hajj [pilgrimage] makers who returned to Iran, specific measures were taken to deal with Ebola. In this period, an image of the patient and hospital staff wearing special clothing to protect against Ebola was released on social networks and spread quickly. In addition, the event occurred during an influenza pandemic, which caused spreading fear and horror of an Ebola epidemic among the public of the city or even the country. The public fear was reduced with repeated interviews, mobilizing of hospital staffs to accept suspected patients, and provision of a rapid test for the detection of influenza, actions that were appropriate in control of the disease. Thus consideration of social transmission and network effects is an important issue for health and policy professionals. Also, it is of great importance to educate employees about putting information and images of patients on social networks with respect to propagation velocity.