Global map Web surveys of disease

19 January 2011, Last updated at 11: 28 alarm systems based on Software GMT disease are considered excellent indicators type seeking influence in Google and you will not find out how sick you are alone, but the data will be recorded on his influence monitoring service.

The service, which is part of the search engine's philanthropic arm, google.org, is just one of many alarm systems based on software disease across the worldwide web.

Through the collection of aggregated data from millions of people or scouring the web for online news reports, blogs and chat rooms, postings, these programs are considered excellent levels indicators of disease worldwide.

"We have found what you are looking for people are actually very good indicators of influenza in a population," Google Trends Flu spokesperson Corrie Conrad said Digital Planet of BBC World Service.

"We have estimates of influence to 28 countries and accuracy will vary depending on each country. But in the United States when compared with the official data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we found that we were more accurate than 90%.

He added: "you can take one or two weeks for the CDC collect data from different doctors throughout the country that are part of their system but finding data is updated automatically every day."

Show map of Google world influence estimation influence levels in various countries

Users can track estimated levels of influence by displaying influence Google level map of the world (photo) that projects of different colours-green, namely the level of the virus is low and red, which means that it is high.

By clicking on each country, users will also find charts of levels of influence over time, month by month.

Signs of disease

Other systems, including the global network of public health Intelligence and HealthMap, use a different method.

Search internet news sites around the world for signs of illness.

Continue reading the main story

is a wonderful use of modern technology that is unbelievably fast "

end quote Prof David Spiegelhalter Cambridge University" we are essentially a web crawling tool very similar to Google that we're scouring the web through tens of thousands of websites, each time looking for specific evidence on infectious diseases, "explains co-founder HealthMap John Brownstein and Diana Schutz.

"Once we find articles about an outbreak, we hold that information and put it on a map available to our users."

According to Mr. Brownstein and Diana Schutz, the system is also useful for tourists who are planning to travel abroad.

"They can see events happening in places they could go," he said.

"For example, foot and mouth disease in South Korea, there is cholera in many parts of the world especially in Haiti. There is polio happening in many parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo ".

While both systems of searching the web for news, HealthMap also uses a system of "citizen reporting" that allows the public to report events through iPhone and Android apps.

"These people take a picture of a cluster of dead birds from their home, a photo of a line from a vaccination clinic or pictures of yourself lying on a hospital bed," explains Mr. Brownstein and Diana Schutz. "Their event becomes a point on the map alongside all other events."

Economic crisis

While these warning disease based on software systems can be quick and user friendly, the real question is only how accurate are they compared to official bodies like the World Health Organization?

Mr. Brownstein and Diana Schutz admits that, while the disease based on software, alarm systems, they are not as reliable as official bodies.

"World Health Organization has a mandate to release information validated because if they release it without going through the appropriate channels, they could potentially face a serious economic crisis for reporting something that is not true," he says.

"In our case we are willing to sacrifice a little risk in terms of information and not necessarily always validate perfectly until we release it.

Continue reading the story main Digital Planet is the weekly program broadcast by the BBC World technology ServiceIt is aired on Tuesday 1232GMT to and 1632GMT repeated, 2032GMT and 0032GMT Wednesday continued: "on some level is a good balance between a Web site that provides a rapid dissemination of information that you need to take with a grain of salt at all times against the validated information you get from the World Health Organization or the health protection agency in the United Kingdom".

Agrees professor David Spiegelhalter, Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

He argues that, while may not be as reliable as official figures, speed is the greatest force.

"It is a wonderful use of modern technology that is incredibly fast," he said. "Get things within a day without waiting for weeks.

"Are valuable for tracking what people are worried," he added.

"There are more accurate than the official surveillance but this is not the problem, the idea is to promptly and exit at people in a way that is easy to understand and see things."