Early warning: Internet surveillance predicts disease outbreak

The habit of Googling for an online diagnosis before visiting a GP can provide early warning of an infectious disease epidemic. In a new study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, internet-based surveillance has been found to detect infectious diseases such as Dengue Fever and Influenza up to two weeks earlier than traditional surveillance methods. Senior author of the paper titled Internet-based surveillance systems for monitoring emerging infectious diseases, QUT Senior Research Fellow Dr Wenbiao Hu said when investigating the occurrence of epidemics, spikes in searches for information about infectious diseases could accurately predict outbreaks of that disease. Dr Hu, based at QUT’s Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, said there was often a lag time of two weeks before traditional surveillance methods could detect an emerging infectious disease. “This is because traditional surveillance relies on the patient recognising the symptoms and seeking treatment before diagnosis, along with the time taken for health professionals to...