Internet searches can predict pandemics


Internet searches can predict pandemics




A study by the International University supports the use of big data to anticipate major diseases



  A report from the International University of Valencia argues that Internet searches can help detect pandemics, predict flu cases in real time or make public health estimates.

The study points out that the tools derived from big data represent a "great promise" to help detect these problems or health risks, always in the company of scientific sources and official organisms such as the World Health Organization (WHO).

   According to sources from the academic institution said in a statement, these tools would be "a perfect complement" to scientific tools, although they clarify that they can not be taken as a "substitute".

The study argues that the analysis of this type of data, offered by platforms such as Wikipedia, have allowed to predict the number of cases of flu with a difference of just 0.27% with respect to official data and "almost in real time", since they have advanced about two weeks on average to public agencies.

The authors explain that if on a given day the searches for a contagious disease skyrocket significantly, this leads to the supposition that there is an epidemic that is developing and that it can be done when it is still incipient.

Therefore, the authors of this report claim the need to deepen collaboration between Big Data, the scientific community and the public sector.

The research work has been carried out by Emilia H.Lopera and Antonio Romero under the title "Communication of crises and pandemics in the Internet era: the role of science and technology".

The study explains that social networks such as Twitter facilitate "geolocalize messages", which allows "predicting epidemics in real time in specific places by allowing follow-ups of words related to a certain risk to public health".

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