How Twitter may have helped Nigeria contain Ebola

“Social media is the fastest means of population feedback in the 21st century and provides cheap two-way information [sharing],” says Lawal Bakare, the Nigerian dentist who created the Twitter campaign @EbolaAlert. And sharing information through links to its original form lends it credibility, he added.

Bakare launched @EbolaAlert in July to recruit volunteers, disseminate accurate information, and facilitate discussion. Within a few weeks, he had 76 000 followers, though on some days Bakare thinks that messages were shared among considerably more people.1

@EbolaAlert gives the public advice about prompt reporting and good environmental and personal hygiene. For example, “How to conduct safe & dignified burial of a patient who died from suspected or confirmed Ebola (EVD),” with a link to guidance from the World Health Organization. Others tweets have targeted professionals, including announcing new WHO guidelines on personal protective equipment.