If you're worried about an H1N1 flu resurgence, head on over to the iPhone app store, says Scientific American. Children's Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab developed an application, called Outbreaks Near Me. The program builds upon HealthMap, a website funded by NLM, CDC, and CIHR, that maps outbreaks but also sends alerts based on the user's location and allows users to submit information as well. "This is grassroots, participatory epidemiology," HealthMap co-founder Clark Freifeld says. The app is free.
If you want to feel more active in epidemiology, there's a video game to check out. Mentioned on the Rachel Maddow Show last month, the Great Flu, from the pharmaceutical industry-sponsored European Scientific Working group on Influenza, allows players to try various tools to contain a fictional virus outbreak. The Daily Scan's been playing all morning and has killed nearly a half-billion people.