Flu Symptoms Tracking by Google
Predicts Outbreaks Earlier than U.S. Center for Disease Control
Nov 13, 2008
Flu symptoms such as aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats, can now be tracked by anyone using a Google search engine, to trace the trends that forecast an outbreak in a particular area a week to ten days before being reported by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Google Trends Tracking Systems
Google Trends began in 2006, when the search engine opened its data with a tool that allows anyone to track the relative popularity of search terms. The company has tested the use of search data to reach conclusions about economic, marketing and entertainment trends. All a searcher has to do is type in something and Goggle will have a million pages relating to it, whether it is about the actual subject or not.
Google Flu Symptoms Tracker
Tests of the new Google Flu Trends suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In early February 2008, the CDC reported that flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. However, Google says its search data showed a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released.(New York Times, 11/12/08). The new service at www.google.org/flutrends analyzes these searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that will show where the flu is spreading.
The hope of public health experts is that the Goggle data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a serious flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and perhaps saving lives.
The Center for Disease Control Tracking
The problem with the CDC tracking being slower is because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. By the time the information is distributed, the flu may have already spread into an area instead of being an early warning system.
Flu Tracker Compared with Goggle Trends
The Flu Tracker does not work along the lines of Google's other trend tacker, Google News. So far, the flu tracker has graphs and data, while Google Trends lists the 100 biggest search topics in the news every hour, ranking them in order. There is no ranking for specific diseases and outbreaks in the flu tracker.
December, January and February are key months for influenza illnesses which can also trigger other medical problems, so Google Flu Tracker and flu trends are coming just in time and perhaps can prevent the spread of the disease, at least in the United States right now.
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