whoissick.org is providing a free web site for tracking sickness using Google Maps. If you’re feeling under the weather, load the site and enter your zip code and symptoms. If you want to find hot zones, go to the search page; you can go back up to 60 days in time and you can select for specific symptoms. The site’s done using Google Maps and is full of Ajaxy-goodness, so with a supported web browser it will update the map in real-time as you select different symptoms, without needing to reload.

They say it’s “completely private”, but unless they keep no web logs it’s probably not completely private. You might be surprised how much information can be gleaned from an IP address.

I suspect that the site would be even more popular with some forums and with the chance for people to sickblog, and upload complaints about how they’re feeling when they enter their symptoms.

Unfortunately it’s mostly aimed at symptoms of flu and the common cold, so tracking anthrax and ebola will have to wait. Still, it’s a nice effort and it seems to have survived being boing-boing’ed.

Via: Boing Boing: Who Is Sick? user-generated epidemiology map
[tags]illness, disease, maps, epidemiology, ajax, web[/tags]

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