Norovirus disease surveillance using Google search data

While norovirus is the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the United States, leading to an estimated 21 million illnesses per year [1], timely surveillance data are limited. Google Insights for Search (GIfS) is a new application that allows users to track specific Google search queries during specified time periods and geographic regions [2].

Objective

We compared norovirus syndromic search query trends with existing surveillance data in the United States in order to assess whether GIfS data can be used to monitor norovirus disease.