Just type “flu symptoms” on Google search to find out if you are coming down with influenza if you are suffering from a headache, running nose or fever.
With knowledge of where you are from and which state in US you are searching from, Google says it is in a better position to identify flu outbreaks as compared to the traditional systems.
By studying the most searched for terms in relation to flu, Google Flu Trends, the public health initiative from Google is in a good position to identify the regions where there may be indications of flu outbreaks.
According to the brain behind this site and lead engineer, Jeremy Ginsberg, with the help of Flu Trends, anyone including health officials, epidemiologists and even mothers with sick children can keep abreast with news and conditions in their area with the data available on flu outbreaks.
Based on the logical assumption that flu outbreaks could occur in areas where people popularly search for flu related terms, this search tool was officially launched on Tuesday.
The model was refined by Google with the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They made available flu tracking data collected over the last five years, said the epidemiology and prevention branch of CDC Chief Dr. Joseph Bresee.
He went on to say that the CDC was eagerly looking forward to testing this model though this cannot be an effective replacement for real surveillance data which was collected on the basis of reports from labs, physicians and even deaths.
