{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,10]],"date-time":"2026-07-10T22:25:10Z","timestamp":1783722310481,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":70,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosntds.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Negl Trop Dis"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, and kala-azar, pose substantial public health burdens in India. Despite WHO recommendations for enhanced disease surveillance and targeted communication strategies, little is known about public perceptions and discussions of these diseases across digital platforms. Understanding these perceptions can guide evidence-based policy making and public health messaging.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We conducted an in silico analysis of publicly accessible social and news media data related to dengue, chikungunya, filariasis, and kala-azar in India from January 2019 to December 2023. YouTube comments and Google News headlines were systematically retrieved, pre-processed, and analysed through sentiment analysis (VADER lexicon) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling. Facebook and Twitter data were not included due to Application programming interface (API) restrictions and their current subscription-based models, limiting free access even for research purposes. We visualized disease-specific digital attention in comparison to epidemiological burden and created chord, Sankey, and network diagrams to elucidate thematic and sentiment-based interactions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Across keyword-matched items (n\u2009=\u2009330), dengue accounted for 173 (~52%) and also had the highest mean annual reported burden (163,679 cases\/year; 2019\u20132023). Lymphatic filariasis showed disproportionately high attention (106 items\/mentions vs 3,060 reported cases\/year), while kala-azar had minimal visibility (5 items; none on YouTube). Sentiment was overall neutral-to-positive, with Google News more neutral and YouTube more positive. Topics emphasized outbreak alerts, public-health campaigns, and prevention\/treatment, with recurring vaccine\/innovation themes.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our study presents a novel approach combining digital surveillance, sentiment analysis, and topic modelling to provide insights into public perceptions of NTDs in India. The observed mismatch between epidemiological burden and online attention underscores the need for strategic public health messaging, aligning with WHO recommendations for community engagement and tailored disease-awareness campaigns. This research provides a valuable tool for policymakers to enhance the effectiveness of communication strategies and improve targeted intervention planning for neglected tropical diseases in India.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0013378","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T17:27:52Z","timestamp":1773854872000},"page":"e0013378","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Noise and neglect: Social-media signals expose attention gaps for dengue, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis and kala-azar in India\u2019s vector-borne NTDs"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Ruchishree","family":"Konhar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"James K.","family":"Lalsanga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1093-7166","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Devendra Kumar","family":"Biswal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref001","unstructured":"World Health Organization. WHO Global NTD Roadmap. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2023."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref002","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual Report 2023\u201324. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2024."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref003","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: A road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021\u20132030. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2020."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref004","article-title":"Effective risk communication for NTDs","author":"A Thomas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Health Commun"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref005","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Dengue Fact Sheet. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2024."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref006","unstructured":"National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control. Dengue Surveillance Report 2023. New Delhi: NCVBDC. 2025."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref007","unstructured":"WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Chikungunya Update. Cairo: WHO EMRO. 2024."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref008","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Chikungunya Global Epidemiology. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2025."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref009","unstructured":"National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control. Chikungunya Surveillance Report 2023. New Delhi: NCVBDC. 2025."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref010","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Filariasis Preventive Chemotherapy Data. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2023."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref011","unstructured":"National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control. LF Morbidity Report. New Delhi: NCVBDC. 2023."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref012","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Visceral Leishmaniasis Fact Sheet. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2023."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref013","unstructured":"National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control. Kala-azar Surveillance Report 2023. New Delhi: NCVBDC. 2025."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref014","unstructured":"Directorate General of Health Services. National Health Programme Status. New Delhi: DGHS. 2023."},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref015","article-title":"Digital epidemiology: what you need to know","volume":"19","author":"M Salath\u00e9","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLoS Comput Biol"},{"issue":"7232","key":"pntd.0013378.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1012","DOI":"10.1038\/nature07634","article-title":"Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data","volume":"457","author":"J Ginsberg","year":"2009","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref017","unstructured":"Paul MJ, Dredze M. You are what you tweet: Analyzing Twitter for public health. In: Proc ICWSM. 2011."},{"issue":"4","key":"pntd.0013378.ref018","article-title":"Digital surveillance for dengue in Brazil","volume":"14","author":"M Alves","year":"2020","journal-title":"PLOS Negl Trop Dis"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref019","first-page":"616","article-title":"Zika digital epidemiology in the Caribbean","volume":"97","author":"MJ Miller","year":"2017","journal-title":"Am J Trop Med Hyg"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16598","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-020-73510-5","article-title":"The COVID-19 social media infodemic","volume":"10","author":"M Cinelli","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci Rep"},{"issue":"3","key":"pntd.0013378.ref021","first-page":"145","article-title":"Tone and trust in digital health messages","volume":"26","author":"P Khatri","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Health Commun"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref022","first-page":"104082","article-title":"Sentiment analysis methods in public health","volume":"127","author":"D Luong","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Biomed Inform"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref023","first-page":"993","article-title":"Latent Dirichlet Allocation","volume":"3","author":"DM Blei","year":"2003","journal-title":"J Mach Learn Res"},{"issue":"10","key":"pntd.0013378.ref024","article-title":"Topic modelling of HIV stigma on social media","volume":"8","author":"C Feltz","year":"2022","journal-title":"JMIR Public Health Surveill"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref025","first-page":"345","article-title":"Malaria awareness via topic modelling","volume":"20","author":"UF Ndubuisi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Malar J"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref026","first-page":"205520762311137","article-title":"Restricted APIs and digital epidemiology","volume":"9","author":"A Bruns","year":"2023","journal-title":"Digit Health"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref027","unstructured":"Indian Council of Medical Research. National ethical guidelines for biomedical and health research involving human participants. New Delhi: ICMR. 2017."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref028","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: A road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021\u20132030. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2020."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref029","unstructured":"World Health Organization. WHO guidance on digital data surveillance methodologies. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2020."},{"issue":"10","key":"pntd.0013378.ref030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pmed.0040296","article-title":"The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies","volume":"4","author":"E von Elm","year":"2007","journal-title":"PLoS Med"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref031","unstructured":"PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Submission guidelines and technical requirements. San Francisco: PLOS; 2024."},{"issue":"4","key":"pntd.0013378.ref032","first-page":"389","article-title":"Best practices for large scale YouTube comment mining with yt-dlp","volume":"20","author":"A Mitchell","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Data Sci"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref033","year":"2023"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref034","first-page":"67","article-title":"Assessing Google News coverage of health topics in India","volume":"50","author":"A Rathore","year":"2021","journal-title":"Health Inf Manag"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref035","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual tables 2019\u20132023. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2024."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref036","first-page":"205520762311137","article-title":"Licence changes threaten free API access to social media data","volume":"9","author":"A Bruns","year":"2023","journal-title":"Digit Health"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref037","unstructured":"Kunchukuttan A, Bhargava M, Dwivedi AK, et al. Indic_trans: A transliteration framework for Indian languages. In: Proc LREC. 2020."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref038","article-title":"VADER: A rule based sentiment analysis model for social media text","author":"CJ Hutto","year":"2014","journal-title":"Proc ICWSM"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref039","first-page":"104082","article-title":"Sentiment analysis in public health: A scoping review","volume":"131","author":"D Luong","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Biomed Inform"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref040","first-page":"45","article-title":"Evaluating translation bias in automated sentiment analysis","volume":"15","author":"SL Patil","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput Linguist Med"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref041","article-title":"Exploring topic coherence over many models","author":"K Stevens","year":"2012","journal-title":"Proc EMNLP"},{"issue":"3","key":"pntd.0013378.ref042","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"276","DOI":"10.11613\/BM.2012.031","article-title":"Interrater reliability: the kappa statistic","volume":"22","author":"ML McHugh","year":"2012","journal-title":"Biochem Med (Zagreb)"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref043","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual Report 2015. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2015."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref044","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual Report 2016. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2016."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref045","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual Report 2017. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2017."},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref046","article-title":"Annual Report 2018","author":"Programme National Vector Borne Disease Control","year":"2018","journal-title":"New Delhi: NVBDCP"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref047","unstructured":"National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control. Provisional Data 2023. New Delhi: NCVBDC. 2025."},{"issue":"5","key":"pntd.0013378.ref048","first-page":"579","article-title":"Correlation coefficients: appropriate use and interpretation","volume":"73","author":"P Schober","year":"2018","journal-title":"Anaesthesia"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref049","first-page":"101","article-title":"Use of Spearman\u2019s rank correlation in medical research","volume":"5","author":"P Schober","year":"2018","journal-title":"Res Methods Med Stat"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref050","first-page":"115","article-title":"Waffle charts for better risk communication","volume":"31","author":"A Fagerlin","year":"2011","journal-title":"Med Decis Making"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref051","article-title":"Ntd digital surveillance","author":"DevBioInfo","year":"2025","journal-title":"Zenodo"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref052","unstructured":"National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Annual Report 2023\u201324. New Delhi: NVBDCP. 2024."},{"issue":"5","key":"pntd.0013378.ref053","first-page":"579","article-title":"Correlation coefficients: appropriate use and interpretation","volume":"73","author":"P Schober","year":"2018","journal-title":"Anaesthesia"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref054","article-title":"Digital epidemiology: a primer","volume":"19","author":"M Salath\u00e9","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLoS Comput Biol"},{"issue":"4","key":"pntd.0013378.ref055","article-title":"Leprosy vs chikungunya on Brazilian Twitter: a comparative content analysis","volume":"17","author":"FM de Moraes","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref056","first-page":"117","article-title":"Media coverage of tuberculosis and HIV in South African newspapers","volume":"26","author":"M Bello","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Health Commun"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref057","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1177\/002234336500200104","article-title":"The Structure of Foreign News","volume":"2","author":"J Galtung","year":"1965","journal-title":"J Peace Res"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref058","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1177\/002234336500200104","article-title":"The Structure of Foreign News","volume":"2","author":"J Galtung","year":"1965","journal-title":"J Peace Res"},{"issue":"28","key":"pntd.0013378.ref059","first-page":"38","article-title":"Up and down with ecology\u2014the \u201cissue-attention cycle\u201d","author":"A Downs","year":"1972","journal-title":"Public Interest"},{"issue":"2","key":"pntd.0013378.ref060","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1539-6924.1988.tb01168.x","article-title":"The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework","volume":"8","author":"RE Kasperson","year":"1988","journal-title":"Risk Analysis"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref061","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"382","DOI":"10.1186\/s12909-022-03446-z","article-title":"Is YouTube a reliable source of health-related information? A systematic review","volume":"22","author":"W Osman","year":"2022","journal-title":"BMC Med Educ"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref062","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"216","DOI":"10.1609\/icwsm.v8i1.14550","article-title":"VADER: a parsimonious rule-based model for sentiment analysis of social media Text","volume":"8","author":"C Hutto","year":"2014","journal-title":"ICWSM"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref063","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1080\/00223980.1975.9915803","article-title":"A Protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change1","volume":"91","author":"RW Rogers","year":"1975","journal-title":"J Psychol"},{"issue":"1","key":"pntd.0013378.ref064","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1007\/s12160-011-9308-7","article-title":"Health message framing effects on attitudes, intentions, and behavior: a meta-analytic review","volume":"43","author":"KM Gallagher","year":"2012","journal-title":"Ann Behav Med"},{"issue":"3","key":"pntd.0013378.ref065","article-title":"Challenges for maintaining post elimination phase of visceral leishmaniasis control programme in India: A field-based study","volume":"18","author":"SK Guha","year":"2024","journal-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis"},{"issue":"4","key":"pntd.0013378.ref066","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"657","DOI":"10.4103\/ijcm.IJCM_12_21","article-title":"Assessment of the impact of morbidity management and disability prevention for lymphatic filariasis on the disease burden in Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu, India","volume":"46","author":"L Mathiarasan","year":"2021","journal-title":"Indian J Community Med"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref067","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Social listening in infodemic management for public health emergencies: guidance on ethical considerations. Geneva: World Health Organization. 2025."},{"issue":"9","key":"pntd.0013378.ref068","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"763","DOI":"10.1016\/S0002-9343(02)01473-0","article-title":"Infodemiology: The epidemiology of (mis)information","volume":"113","author":"G Eysenbach","year":"2002","journal-title":"Am J Med"},{"issue":"7","key":"pntd.0013378.ref069","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1002616","article-title":"Digital epidemiology","volume":"8","author":"M Salath\u00e9","year":"2012","journal-title":"PLoS Comput Biol"},{"key":"pntd.0013378.ref070","article-title":"Ending the neglect to attain the sustainable development goals: a road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021\u20132030","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2020","journal-title":"Geneva: World Health Organization"}],"container-title":["PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.0013378","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T17:28:06Z","timestamp":1773854886000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.0013378"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Shih Keng","family":"Loong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"references-count":70,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.0013378","relation":{},"ISSN":["1935-2735"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1935-2735","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]}}}