Wyz-Visualization & Insights

Vast2011 MC1: Characterization of an Epidemic Spread

Background

Methodology

Visualization & Insights

Feedback

Visualization & Insights

Origin and Epidemic Spread

Identify approximately where the outbreak started on the map (ground zero location). Outline the affected area. Explain how you arrived at your conclusion.
After a quick browse around the dataset, we can find that the content of over 1M microblog messages contains all aspects of life. So first, we start by extracting flu-related microblog messages. A list of keywords was selected to filter raw data. The list consists of keywords including flu, chill, fever, sweat, ache, pain, fatigue, cough, breath, nausea, vomit, diarrhea, and lymph, which are from observed symptoms and human judgement. After filtering, there are 71939 flu-related microblog messages left.

Visualization	Insights
	Infer the disease outbreak date The line chart is to show daily total flu-related microblog messages trend. It can be seen from the graph that there is a significant rise on May 17th.
	Map of flu-related microblog messages on May 17 The few reports were scattered over the map.
	Map of flu-related microblog messages on May 18 From the geographical map, it is clear to see that the disease broke out in the Downtown and then spread to Eastside.
	Map of flu-related microblog messages on May 17 On May 19th, the disease had spread throughout the downstream of the Vast river.
800px	Magnification of ground zero location, May 18 If we zoom in, we can deduce from this picture that first 'ground zero' was in Downtown, around the Dome, City Hospital, and Convention Center.