Oct 7 2014
EbolaScan.com launched today, bringing the power of local online alerts to U.S. residents concerned about new potential Ebola cases in their area. The free service, available via the web, tablets, and smartphones, alerts people with information about the latest reported cases nearby. Users can also use the service to track all the reported cases across the United States. People can fine-tune the alerts, based on how close to where they live they want case alerts (e.g., 150 miles, 300 miles, All USA, etc.).
"Ebola is at risk of becoming a global pandemic," said John McKinley, founder of EbolaScan. "The challenge is that infection hot spots have local origins, and you care the most about the cases in the area where you live. Our team found it really frustrating to filter through the massive amount of stories about Ebola to find out the latest case information near us, so we decided to solve the problem. We are all in this together, so we also wanted to draw upon concerned U.S. residents to help ensure we have the latest Ebola case data to share. As such, the service is powered by a crowd-sourced model of new case submission, where anyone can submit a new news story to our team to review and add to our case database."
The service is free. Signup is simple and immediate at EbolaScan.com. Users can view the latest case information online, along with the current status of each case. In addition, users can view the latest news about Ebola cases in the United States.
"We build the service based on the team's overwhelming desire to do something to help," said John McKinley. "We hope people embrace it, and work together to create the most accurate public Ebola US case database online. Our goal is simple: provide a useful service for timely case alerting, until the government or CDC step in and do it."