How Africa Tweets

New research reveals how Africa Tweets

South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco lead Tweeting on the continent



Nairobi, 26 January 2012 – Young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, according to How Africa Tweets, new research launched in Nairobi today.



In the first ever attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa, Portland Communications and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. This pan-African analysis of Twitter traffic was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa’s most active Tweeters.



How Africa Tweets found:



· South Africa is the continent’s most active country by volume of geo-located Tweets, with over twice as many Tweets (5,030,226 during Q4 2011) as the next most active Kenya (2,476,800). Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620) make up the remainder of the top five most active countries.

· 57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile devices.

· 60% of Africa’s most active Tweeters are aged 20-29.

· Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation, with 81% of those polled saying that they mainly used it for communicating with friends.

· Twitter is becoming an important source of information in Africa. 68% of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor news. 22% use it to search for employment opportunities.

· African Twitter users are active across a range of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Mark Flanagan, Portland’s Partner for Digital Communications, says: “One of the more surprising findings of this research is that more public figures have not joined Africa’s burgeoning Twittersphere. With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent. As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place.”

How Africa Tweets found that Twitter is helping to form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said that at least half of the Twitter accounts they follow are based on the continent.



Beatrice Karanja, Associate Director and head of Portland Nairobi, says: “We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa’s Twitter revolution is really just beginning. Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views. And for Africa – as for the rest of the world – that can only be good.”



The key findings of How Africa Tweets and a high-resolution version of the infographic can be found at www.portland-communications.com

Portland Communications hopes that this survey will serve as a benchmark for measuring the evolution of Twitter use in Africa, shedding new light on how Africa communicates nationally, regionally and internationally. We welcome feedback and comments.



Suggested hashtag: #AfricaTweets




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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

New Study on Cholera in Haiti Demonstrates for First Time Tweets, Blogs and News Feeds Can Track a Disease Epidemic in Disaster Setting More Rapidly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bridget DeSimone, +1 301.280.5735 bdesimone@burnesscommunications.com Contact: Preeti Singh, +1 301.280.5722 psingh@burnesscommunications.com New Study on Cholera in Haiti Demonstrates for First Time Tweets, Blogs and News Feeds Can Track a Disease Epidemic in Disaster Setting More Rapidly than Traditional Methods New research in special section in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on disease in post-earthquake Haiti includes likely identity of first cholera case and Paul Farmer and Louise Ivers’ expert perspective on why in midst of massive aid effort cholera “exploded like a bomb”

Deerfield, Il (9 January 2012) -- Internet-based news and Twitter feeds were faster than traditional sources at detecting the onset and progression of the cholera epidemic in post-earthquake Haiti that has already killed more than 6500 people and sickened almost half a million, according to a new study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The study is the first to demonstrate the use of data from “informal” media sources in monitoring an outbreak of a neglected tropical disease in a resource-limited setting, and shows that these sources can yield reliable decision-making data during deadly disease outbreaks almost in real-time, often far earlier than traditional surveillance methods that include surveys of hospitals and health clinics. The research was conducted by scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. “When we analyzed news and Twitter feeds from the early days of the epidemic in 2010, we found they could be mined for valuable information on the cholera outbreak that was available up to two weeks ahead of surveillance reports issued by the government health ministry,” said Rumi Chunara, PhD, of the Informatics Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and the lead author of the study. “The techniques we employed eventually could be used around the world as an affordable and efficient way to quickly detect the onset of an epidemic and then intervene with such things as vaccines and antibiotics.” The lessons learned from Haiti’s ongoing battle against cholera—the globally largest cholera epidemic in recent history—are included in a special section of AJTMH that looks back at Haiti two years after the earthquake to find infectious diseases looming large. Faster Response to Disease Outbreaks: Is There an App for That? Experts believe one way to improve the response to disease outbreaks in poor countries is through affordable and accessible surveillance that can provide early warning that a crisis is imminent. When Chunara and her colleagues looked to Web-based information sources for insights into Haiti’s cholera epidemic, they were motivated by the fact that, even in favorable conditions, results from conventional disease surveillance efforts often are not available for weeks. Their work began with an Internet tool called HealthMap (http://www.healthmap.org), which was launched in 2006 by Children’s Hospital Boston to provide “real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats.” Chunara and her colleagues used HealthMap to automatically capture any coverage or mentions of cholera from a variety of information sources—including news media, blogs, and discussion groups—that occurred in the first 100 days of the outbreak, from October 20, 2010 to January 28, 2011. The search included information sources from eight languages. In addition, the investigators probed Twitter posts from the same time period for any mentions of cholera. Overall, the researchers amassed 4697 distinct reports via HealthMap and 188,819 Tweets. They found that in general, they could make an assessment of disease activity using these “informal” sources, including a calculation of the outbreak “reproductive number” which indicates how an outbreak is progressing. At times, the estimate from “informal” sources very closely matched estimates made using case reports released by official sources, but the advantage, they said, is that the data derived from the informal sources is available almost instantly. “There is a lot of interest in the global public health community about how to harness the most valuable information flowing through the Web to turbo-charge the more traditional surveillance activities, particularly in low resource settings,” said James Kazura, MD, director of the Center for Global Health and Diseases at Case Western Reserve University and the new president of ASTMH. “It’s another example of how the effort to improve our response to the people of Haiti is generating insights that will be helpful to people around the world. Benefitting from scientific innovation knows no time zones or geographic borders.” Commentary from Paul Farmer and Louise Ivers But in a commentary in the Journal by Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, and Louise Ivers, MD, MPH, of the Boston-based aid group Partners In Health, it is Haiti’s cholera outbreak that provides the most poignant example of the challenges facing not just Haiti but the entire world to close the shocking gap between “haves” and “have-nots” of health. In the commentary, they wonder, “If we know so much about cholera… how did it become the leading infectious killer of young adults in Haiti in the middle of the international response to the January 2010 earthquake—the largest humanitarian effort in history? The short answer is that expectations are lowered for diseases that disproportionately afflict poor people.” Farmer is a founding director of Partners In Health, and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ivers is the Senior Health and Policy Advisor for Partners In Health and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard who has lived and worked in Haiti for the last 10 years. The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), publisher of the Journal, recently recognized her service in Haiti with its Bailey K. Ashford Medal, one of the group's highest honors. In Haiti’s “First” Cholera Case, Glimpses of the Globalization of Disease In another cholera-related study, Ivers and David Walton, MD, MPH, also of Partners In Health, uncover what they believe is likely the first case of Haiti’s cholera epidemic. They trace it to a 28-year-old man with severe mental health disorders who lived in a rural village in central Haiti downstream from the suspected source of the outbreak--a peacekeeper encampment. He died in mid-October 2010 from what in retrospect appears to have been cholera, a likelihood supported by the fact that shortly after his death his village, Mirebalais, recorded the first cholera hospitalizations of the outbreak. Ivers and Walton found the lack of treatment for the man’s mental health problems probably intensified his risk of getting sick and thus played a role in hastening the arrival of the epidemic. They believe this link underscores the often overlooked importance of mental health as a “component of global health.” Ivers and Walton also found the circumstances surrounding this case to be illustrative of the curious way infectious diseases can now rapidly move around the planet and show up in unexpected places. They note that Mirebalais “would not have featured highly on any list of places in which public health authorities had concern for an outbreak of a deadly pathogen imported from overseas.” Yet the fact remains that a South Asia strain of cholera found its way into the town. And from there it rapidly spread. Ivers and Walton report that “in a matter of weeks” after appearing in Mirebalais, the cholera strain that had begun its journey in Asia had spread throughout Haiti, and from there to the neighboring Dominican Republic and overseas to Miami and Boston. (It also has been found in Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, and Canada.) Reason for Hope in the Midst of Misery Ivers noted that while the country’s cholera epidemic has attracted significant attention, it does not mean that international aid groups or domestic health officials have shifted attention and resources from other health burdens, such as Haiti’s battles against malaria, measles, dengue, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition. She also said it’s important not to view Haiti’s problems as so monumental and its infrastructure so damaged that health-related interventions stand little chance of success, pointing to HIV, measles and polio efforts by the government over the last decade. She noted that there was a successful campaign to provide measles vaccinations in refugee camps and Haiti has managed to keep measles and polio out of the country. Haiti also is part of an international effort to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiais. And on the cholera front, while there has been debate about whether immunizations can or should be implemented in Haiti, Partners In Health has recently secured 200,000 doses of cholera vaccine and plans to launch a pilot program in collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Health that will start immunizing people in 2012. “If anyone is concerned about the logistics of delivering health care innovations to Haiti, just ask Haitians for help and they’ll figure out how to get it done,” Ivers said. James Kazura, ASTMH president, added, “The lessons we are learning from the international medical response to Haiti should foremost be used to improve the health and well-being of the Haitian people. Next, it highlights the critical role research plays to better prepare the science, medical and aid communities, working together with governments and diplomats, in planning for future disasters anywhere.”

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Ending Vertical Transmission of HIV: Community reality far from global ambition

Activists say “set the bar based on the latest science and not declining budgets”

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – New research by community activists from Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Nigeria finds that women’s health is still not a priority within programmes to prevent vertical transmission of HIV, despite all the recent declarations and summits on maternal health. The research report launched at the African AIDS Conference (ICASA) in Addis Ababa today calls for more comprehensive care for women and families as part of the drive to end vertical transmission of HIV.

African governments are revising their national plans to meet the targets set in the Global Plan Towards Elimination of New HIV Infections in Children by 2015 and Keeping Their Mothers Alive. The four countries in this report are priority countries because the gap between the need for and access to vertical transmission services is among the largest in the world.

Activists are calling on African leaders to set the bar based on the latest science and not declining budgets as they scale up programmes to meet the global goals of reducing HIV infection among children and AIDS-related maternal deaths.

“At podiums, politicians talk about women being the center of the programmes to prevent vertical transmission of HIV. But in national plans, programmes and budgets, women are simply forgotten,” said Aditi Sharma of International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, coordinator of the report. “If governments continue to fail to use this opportunity to stop a cycle of HIV and health problems, for a woman as well as her children, her male partner and her community, they will certainly fail to meet their health goals.”

This week at ICASA, host country Ethiopia announced a new Emergency Plan on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission.

Responding to the launch, Hereni Yalew of the National Network of Positive Women Ethiopians (NNPWE) said, “We welcome Ethiopia’s new plan for ending vertical transmission of HIV and the Minister of Health’s recognition of how women’s groups have helped to ensure that more women are using services – from HIV testing to antenatal care. The next step is to involve women’s groups more fully in designing a programme that better responds to the needs of the community and meets the goals that Ethiopia has set itself.”

Revised national plans and programmes to prevent vertical transmission of HIV and keep mothers alive and healthy must address common barriers that community researchers identified in all four countries.

“Women must get all the services they need to stay healthy. In Cameroon, antiretroviral drugs are free and the national policy says that HIV tests should also be free. But many women told us that have to pay 500 CFA (US$1) in public facilities and over 3,000 CFA in private facilities. Testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections is several times more expensive and beyond the reach of most women,” says Sandrine Mataffeu, of the Central Africa Treatment Action Group (CATAG) in Cameroon.

“Many of the health authorities and service providers interviewed in Cote D’Ivoire considered the lack of male involvement as one of the weakest points of the national programme. Giving incentives for couples to attend testing and care together would help reduce the fear of rejection and blame that many women face,” said Sylvère Bukiki of the West Africa Treatment Action Group (WATAG) in Cote D’Ivoire.

“We are calling on Africa to say no to single-dose nevirapine. Women in rich countries get the best drugs and counseling to prevent vertical transmission of HIV. In Nigeria and many other countries in Africa women are still receiving single-dose nevirapine when scientific studies have shown that it can cause drug resistance and put their future treatment at risk,” said Olayide Akanni of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) in Nigeria.

Other common themes emerging from the four countries include:

• Lack of proper guidance and correct information about infant feeding choice
• Lack of integration between HIV prevention services and sexual and reproductive and maternal and child health services
• Recent WHO guidelines on earlier initiation of treatment for pregnant women and the use of more effective regimens to prevent vertical transmission of HIV are not being fully implemented

The Long Walk: Ensuring comprehensive care for women and families to end vertical transmission of HIV also includes updates from six countries that reported on this issue in 2009. These updates show some progress, including testing scale up, training of healthcare workers and integration of services. However, women still lack correct infant feeding guidance in most countries, and continue to face widespread stigma in health care settings.

At ICASA, activists are also calling on governments not to walk away from the AIDS response just as new science and proven interventions make ending AIDS a possibility.

“Donor and governments cannot promise to eliminate vertical transmission and reduce AIDS-related maternal mortality by 2015 on the one hand and on the other starve the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria or promote free trade agreements that kills off generic competition essential for affordable drugs,” added Sharma.

The full report is available at four4women.org.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.