Fig 1.
Flowchart of data collection, sampling criteria, syntax analysis and content analysis.
Table 1.
List of infectious diseases notifiable in mainland China according to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (as of 2012), and the corresponding keywords used to search Weibo posts.
Table 2.
News and information that led to a peak in Weibo traffic as found in the WeiboScope database, January 1 to December 31, 2012.*
Fig 2.
Sample time series of daily count of Weibo posts containing keywords pertaining to selected diseases in 2012 in WeiboScope database (posts generated by Weibo users with 1000 followers or more).
Nine diseases are chosen as illustrations for the magnitude of the peaks and are grouped accordingly: (a) dengue, malaria and pertussis; (b) dysentery, hepatitis B and hepatitis C; (c) HIV, meningitis and rabies.
Table 3.
Categories and examples of Weibo posts that led to a peak in Weibo traffic as found in the WeiboScope database (January 1 to December 31, 2012).