Weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization alerted the public to a growing number of swine flu cases, a startup based in Seattle's suburbs already had a hunch something was up.
Veratect Inc., a 2-year-old company with fewer than 50 employees, combines computer algorithms with human analysts to monitor online and off-line sources for hints of disease outbreaks and civil unrest worldwide. It tracks thousands of "events" each month — an odd case of respiratory illness, or a run on over-the-counter medicines, for example — then ranks them for severity and posts them on a subscription-only Web portal for clients who want early warnings.
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