For dozens of companies, including giant multinational corporations and tiny internet quacks, the outbreak of swine flu frenzy has turned into a licence to print money.
49 However, the increasing availability of Internet access worldwide can have unintended consequences: Ohkado et al 50 described an outbreak of TB in Tokyo which was investigated using strain typing.
The use of Internet to search for vaccine related information was clearly visible during the pandemic influenza outbreak in 2009 in the Netherlands, when 56% of the acceptors of H1N1 influenza vaccine and 75% of decliners of the H1N1 vaccine searched for information on the Internet [ 19].
Am laughingstock of Internet.
manufacturer of "Internet appliances".
Lots of Internet infrastructure.
Beware of internet scams.
Most reports of Internet-based outbreak investigations have described large, single outbreaks conducted by national or state public health agencies.
The impetus is the Internet, which has caused the outbreak of a price war, providing a textbook case of capitalism.
And rising public concern about biological terrorism and rapid spread of news of outbreaks over the Internet are likely to increase the challenge, if not frequency, of mass hysteria for health officials.
