People apparently use Google to search for information on respiratory infections during epidemics. According to the New York Times, Google.org's philanthopic unit reports that it has been able to track the outbreaks of flu like disease a week to ten days before they have been reported by the U.S. Center for Disease Control.
Comment: It is obviously useful for health practitioners and public health agencies to have advanced warning of epidemics. In the case of flu, the intensity of epidemics varies greatly from year to year, and the rare flu pandemics not only infect lots of people but kill many more than in the "normal" epidemics. Advance warning of the magnitude of a flu epidemic may be very important.
I suspect that the Google approach could be expanded to include other sources of information, such as Technorati's tracking of blog subjects. I suspect it could also be used for other communicable diseases (and indeed health problems of other kinds). This may be an important hint for the development of other "inconspicuous" health indicators. JAD
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