High correlation of Middle East respiratory syndrome spread with Google search and Twitter trends in Korea
The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was exported to Korea in 2015,
resulting in a threat to neighboring nations. We evaluated the possibility of using a digital surveillance
system based on web searches and social media data to monitor this MERS outbreak. We collected the
number of daily laboratory-confirmed MERS cases and quarantined cases from May 11, 2015 to June 26,
2015 using the Korean government MERS portal. The daily trends observed via Google search and
Twitter during the same time period were also ascertained using Google Trends and Topsy. Correlations
among the data were then examined using Spearman correlation analysis. We found high correlations
(>0.7) between Google search and Twitter results and the number of confirmed MERS cases for the
previous three days using only four simple keywords: “MERS”, “메르스” (“MERS (in Korean)”),
“메르스” (“MERS symptoms (in Korean)”), and “메르스 병원” (“MERS hospital (in Korean)”).
Additionally, we found high correlations between the Google search and Twitter results and the number
of quarantined cases using the above keywords. This study demonstrates the possibility of using a
digital surveillance system to monitor the outbreak of MERS.
Other Information
Published in: Scientific Reports
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep32920
Funding
Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.
History
Language
- English
- Korean
Publisher
Springer NaturePublication Year
- 2016
License statement
This Item is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Institution affiliated with
- Hamad Bin Khalifa University
- Qatar Computing Research Institute - HBKU