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Volume 15, Number 8—August 2009
Letter

More Diseases Tracked by Using Google Trends

Camille PelatComments to Author , Clément Turbelin, Avner Bar-Hen, Antoine Flahault, and Alain-Jacques Valleron
Author affiliations: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France (C. Pelat, C. Turbelin, A.-J. Valleron); Université Pierre et Marie Curie–Paris 6, Paris (C. Pelat, C. Turbelin, A.-J. Valleron); Université Paris Descartes, Paris (A. Bar-Hen); École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique, Paris (A. Flahault)

Main Article

Appendix Figure

Time series of search queries plotted along the incidence of 3 diseases (influenza-like illness, gastroenteritis, and chickenpox), 2004-2008. Black lines show trends of search fractions containing the French words for influenza (A), gastroenteritis (B), and chickenpox (C). Red lines show incidence rates for the 3 corresponding diseases (influenza-like illness, acute diarrhea, and chickenpox). Search fractions are scaled between 0 and 100 by Google Insights for Search's internal processes (5). In

Appendix Figure. Time series of search queries plotted along the incidence of 3 diseases (influenza-like illness, gastroenteritis, and chickenpox), 2004-2008. Black lines show trends of search fractions containing the French words for influenza (A), gastroenteritis (B), and chickenpox (C). Red lines show incidence rates for the 3 corresponding diseases (influenza-like illness, acute diarrhea, and chickenpox). Search fractions are scaled between 0 and 100 by Google Insights for Search's internal processes (5). Incidence rates are expressed in no. cases for 100,000 inhabitants, as provided by the Sentinel Network (4).

Main Article

References
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  2. Polgreen PM, Chen Y, Pennock DM, Nelson FD. Using internet searches for influenza surveillance.Clin Infect Dis. 2008;47:1443–8. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
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  4. Valleron AJ, Bouvet E, Garnerin P, Menares J, Heard I, Letrait S, A computer network for the surveillance of communicable diseases: the French experiment.Am J Public Health. 1986;76:1289–92. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. Google insights for search, 2009 [cited 2009 Feb 27]. Available from http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

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Page updated: November 05, 2010
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