Manitoba is facing one of the highest flu rates in the country. To get ahead of the virus before a potential outbreak, the province is looking to a feature on Google for help.
The search engine has a function called “trends.”
Of interest to the province is Google Flu Trends.
It tracks certain keywords such as “cough,” “fever” and “runny nose” to analyze how many people may be contracting the flu at any given time.
The province said because this data is analyzed in real-time, it gives them a better chance to catch a spike in influenza cases before a potential outbreak.
According to Google Flu Trends, Manitoba is experiencing its highest flu activity in six years. But the data may have some flaws.
Computer scientist Terry Andres from the University of Manitoba said people often search things like “fatigue” or “sore throat” even when they’re not sick. However, if those words are in the flu trends algorithm, it will skew the results.
The province said it has no plans to replace its current tracking system with Google Trends - only compliment it.
Other methods, such as Health Links and doctor reports, are also taken into consideration.
Privacy concerns have been raised as every Google search contains the IP address of the user which can be used to trace where a person is.
Google said all of the data is collected electronically without any human involvement and it clears its IP address trace history every nine months.
