Surveilling Influenza Incidence With Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web Traffic Data: Demonstration Using a Novel Dataset.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Influenza epidemics result in a public health and economic burden worldwide. Traditional surveillance techniques, which rely on doctor visits, provide data with a delay of 1 to 2 weeks. A means of obtaining real-time data and forecasting future outbreaks is desirable to provide more timely responses to influenza epidemics.

Objective

This study aimed to present the first implementation of a novel dataset by demonstrating its ability to supplement traditional disease surveillance at multiple spatial resolutions.

Methods

We used internet traffic data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website to determine the potential usability of this data source. We tested the traffic generated by 10 influenza-related pages in 8 states and 9 census di

SUBMITTER: Caldwell WK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7367534 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature