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Flu sufferers turn to social media

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Turns out, flu sufferers are turning out in droves to post about their illness on Twitter and Facebook. According to new data, 626,379 English speakers have mentioned their run-in with the winter bug since early December on the two social media services.

Since early December social media analysts firm Crimson Hexagon has found that personal reports of "I have the flu" represent 42 percent of the social conversation about influenza -- a number that represents more than 250,000 Twitter or Facebook users with the bug, writes Mashable. Top tweets in the UK included mentions of norovirus, which is rampant in parts of Europe this season.

Sharing news reports about the flu represents 35 percent of the conversation, but that type of post peaked on January 13. Good news: overall mentions of the flu are dropping, which Mashable cites as meaning everyone either is getting healthier or just stopped posting about it.

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