Search and deploy: Google may be the next weapon to beat epidemics (Cosmos)

Cosmos: Search and deploy: Google may be the next weapon to beat epidemics. “In research published in PLOS Computational Biology, an international team has used a mathematical modelling tool to track dengue-related Google searches to better predict dengue fever activity…. Despite the huge number of individuals at risk each year, governments rely on hospital-based reporting to monitor the disease, a method hampered by poor communication and time constraints. In response to the demand for an effective disease surveillance tool, the researchers drew on a simple premise: the more people affected by dengue, the more Google searches on the topic.”