High correlation of Middle East respiratory syndrome spread with Google search and Twitter trends in Korea
<p dir="ltr">The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was exported to Korea in 2015,<br>resulting in a threat to neighboring nations. We evaluated the possibility of using a digital surveillance<br>system based on web searches and social media data to m...
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2016
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| Summary: | <p dir="ltr">The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was exported to Korea in 2015,<br>resulting in a threat to neighboring nations. We evaluated the possibility of using a digital surveillance<br>system based on web searches and social media data to monitor this MERS outbreak. We collected the<br>number of daily laboratory-confirmed MERS cases and quarantined cases from May 11, 2015 to June 26,<br>2015 using the Korean government MERS portal. The daily trends observed via Google search and<br>Twitter during the same time period were also ascertained using Google Trends and Topsy. Correlations<br>among the data were then examined using Spearman correlation analysis. We found high correlations<br>(>0.7) between Google search and Twitter results and the number of confirmed MERS cases for the<br>previous three days using only four simple keywords: “MERS”, “메르스” (“MERS (in Korean)”),<br>“메르스” (“MERS symptoms (in Korean)”), and “메르스 병원” (“MERS hospital (in Korean)”).<br>Additionally, we found high correlations between the Google search and Twitter results and the number<br>of quarantined cases using the above keywords. This study demonstrates the possibility of using a<br>digital surveillance system to monitor the outbreak of MERS.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Scientific Reports<br>License: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep32920" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep32920</a></p> |
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