Fighting the Flu with Your Cell

Last year's response to the pandemic H1N1 flu was mired by delays in manufacturing what was supposed to be the most powerful tool for preventing widespread fatalities: a vaccine. This year, one of the most powerful tools may just be your cell phone.

The White House's science and technology advisers last month issued the president a report detailing steps the federal government should take to more rapidly supply the nation with an effective vaccine when the next influenza pandemic strikes.

One relatively cheap, short-term approach for starting vaccine production sooner is nationwide electronic surveillance, according to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which is composed of the nation's most highly-regarded scientists and engineers. That means reporting on the health of your coworkers.

Specific steps include enhancing global networks for monitoring clusters of cases that are atypical of the seasonal flu. Another tactic would be exploiting cell phones, the Internet and other communications tools to crowd-source, or employ the general population, to help with the reporting, the report stated