Editors,
The recent paper on Using Google Trends (GT) to Estimate the Incidence of Influenza-Like Illness in Argentina 11 Orellano PW, Reynoso JI, Antman J, Argibay O. Uso de la herramienta Google Trends para estimar la incidencia de enfermedades tipo influenza en Argentina. Cad Saúde Pública 2015; 31:691-700. is very interesting. Orellano et al. studied Google Flu Trends (GFT) and GT with a conclusion regarding “the utility of GT to complement influenza surveillance”. Indeed, the usefulness of GFT and GT has been mentioned in some earlier reports 22 Araz OM, Bentley D, Muelleman RL. Using Google Flu Trends data in forecasting influenza-like-illness related ED visits in Omaha, Nebraska. Am J Emerg Med 2014; 32:1016-23.,33 Malik MT, Gumel A, Thompson LH, Strome T, Mahmud SM. “Google flu trends” and emergency department triage data predicted the 2009 pandemic H1N1 waves in Manitoba. Can J Public Health 2011; 102:294-7.. However, as a computational model, there are several things to be considered in the simulation 44 Wiwanitkit V. Google Flu for forecasting influenza-like illness. Am J Emerg Med 2014; 32:1417.. Under- or over-estimation can be expected and this is still the present problem in using the Google system for predicting influenza 44 Wiwanitkit V. Google Flu for forecasting influenza-like illness. Am J Emerg Med 2014; 32:1417.. There is a need for modifications of GT and GFT into a more specific tool that is appropriate for each context. A good example of this is the development of FluBreaks by Pervaiz et al. 55 Pervaiz F, Pervaiz M, Abdur Rehman N, Saif U. FluBreaks: early epidemic detection from Google flu trends. J Med Internet Res 2012; 14:e125..
- 1Orellano PW, Reynoso JI, Antman J, Argibay O. Uso de la herramienta Google Trends para estimar la incidencia de enfermedades tipo influenza en Argentina. Cad Saúde Pública 2015; 31:691-700.
- 2Araz OM, Bentley D, Muelleman RL. Using Google Flu Trends data in forecasting influenza-like-illness related ED visits in Omaha, Nebraska. Am J Emerg Med 2014; 32:1016-23.
- 3Malik MT, Gumel A, Thompson LH, Strome T, Mahmud SM. “Google flu trends” and emergency department triage data predicted the 2009 pandemic H1N1 waves in Manitoba. Can J Public Health 2011; 102:294-7.
- 4Wiwanitkit V. Google Flu for forecasting influenza-like illness. Am J Emerg Med 2014; 32:1417.
- 5Pervaiz F, Pervaiz M, Abdur Rehman N, Saif U. FluBreaks: early epidemic detection from Google flu trends. J Med Internet Res 2012; 14:e125.
Publication Dates
- Publication in this collection
June 2015
History
- Received
08 May 2015 - Accepted
11 May 2015