By: Alanna Shaikh

Google has a new tool, . It’s based on Google Flu Trends, and it is intended to help public health authorities stay on top of Dengue outbreaks. It’s pretty much exactly the same as Google Flu Trends: Google has found that certain search terms tend to indicate a dengue outbreak.

The Dengue Trends tool describes itself this way:

We have also found a close relationship between how many people search for dengue-related topics and how many people actually have dengue symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for “dengue” is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the dengue-related search queries are added together. We compared our query counts with traditional dengue surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when dengue season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much dengue is circulating in different countries and regions around the world.

That’s interesting, and I am wondering how many other illnesses this kind of tracking will work for. Could we look at cholera this way, or malaria? Why do dengue and influenza in particular work? And I love the innovative thinking behind the whole idea, and the way it makes brand new use of existing data, like some kind of fabulous global health magic trick.

It’s not going to replace regular disease surveillance of dengue outbreaks, but it’s a fantastic supplement to the standard data sources. It could also, I think, be used to detect governments who are deliberately fudging their epidemiology data. There are a lot of political reasons to over or under report the prevalence of various infectious diseases – Mexico, for example, did not gain from its honesty with regard to swine flu. The Google data will be difficult to game, and we’ll know something is up if the Google data looks very different from the official numbers.

Beyond the nifty, thrifty, data use and the chance to catch deceptive governments, the Dengue Trends tool has me excited for a third reason. Someone designed a sexy new online tool. For a neglected tropical disease. Pandemic influenza is big scary stuff, all in the news and threatening North America. Dengue, not so much. However much of a threat NTDs may pose to the wealthy world if they aren’t controlled, they’re not a major health problem in Mountainview at the moment. But someone made a tool anyway, and gave us one more way to fight dengue.

I really hope it’s a sign that the NTDs are starting to get the attention they deserve. In a planet full of health problems of a magnitude and complexity I can barely stand to think about it. (, for example) neglected tropical diseases are an issue we can actually get on top of. We provide treatment, and we can discover cures. We’re this close to really putting a stop to the bulk of the NTDs. The Google Dengue tool is a sign that we’re going to get there.

Alanna Shaikh is an expert in health consulting, writing about global health for UN Dispatch and about international relief and development at Blood & Milk. She also serves as a frequently contributing blogger to ‘End the Neglect.’ The views and opinions expressed by guest bloggers are not necessarily the views and opinions of the Global Network. All opinions expressed here are Alanna’s own and not those of any employer or the US government.