PLoS medicine has a report about “Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project” that goes far beyond old-fashioned disease reporting. They write

These Web-based data sources not only facilitate early outbreak detection, but also support increasing public awareness of disease outbreaks prior to their formal recognition. Through low-cost and real-time Internet data-mining, combined with openly available and user-friendly technologies, both participation in and access to global disease surveillance are no longer limited to the public health community. The availability of Web-based news media provides an alternative public health information source in under-resourced areas.

Yea, yea.