Yang, ShihaoKou, Samuel C.Lu, FredBrownstein, JohnBrooke, NicholasSantillana, Mauricio2017-11-212017Yang, Shihao, Samuel C. Kou, Fred Lu, John S. Brownstein, Nicholas Brooke, and Mauricio Santillana. 2017. “Advances in using Internet searches to track dengue.” PLoS Computational Biology 13 (7): e1005607. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005607. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005607.http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34375290Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that threatens over half of the world’s population. Despite being endemic to more than 100 countries, government-led efforts and tools for timely identification and tracking of new infections are still lacking in many affected areas. Multiple methodologies that leverage the use of Internet-based data sources have been proposed as a way to complement dengue surveillance efforts. Among these, dengue-related Google search trends have been shown to correlate with dengue activity. We extend a methodological framework, initially proposed and validated for flu surveillance, to produce near real-time estimates of dengue cases in five countries/states: Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan. Our result shows that our modeling framework can be used to improve the tracking of dengue activity in multiple locations around the world.en-USComputer and Information SciencesComputer NetworksInternetPeople and PlacesGeographical LocationsAsiaTaiwanPeople and placesGeographical locationsSouth AmericaBrazilNorth AmericaMexicoThailandMedicine and Health SciencesEpidemiologyDisease SurveillanceInfectious Disease SurveillanceInfectious DiseasesInfectious Disease ControlSingaporeJournal Article2017-11-2110.1371/journal.pcbi.1005607