Comparing Prescription Sales, Google Trends and CDC Data as Flu Activity Indicators

In a 2007 survey of public health officials in the United States, International Society for Disease Surveillance found that only 7% used pharmacy prescription sales data for surveillance (1). There have been many reports suggesting effective use of prescription sales data in syndromic surveillance (2, 3, 4, 5). Community pharmacies can provide a valuable supplementary tool for syndromic surveillance of infectious diseases.

Objective

To examine if the prescription sales data from a large retail pharmacy chain in the US were comparable to Google Flu trends and CDC’s US ILI Network data as flu activity indicator.