An Evaluation on Popularity of the Prioritized Diseases Using Google Trends

Abstract

Google is the most popular search engine in the world. Another service of Google Inc. is Google Trends which is based on Google search data. The World Health Organization held an informal consultation in 2017 and announced the priority disease list. There was an urgent need for research and development for the priority diseases. Lassa Fever: Marburg, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Nipah, Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, and Zika diseases are from the priority disease list. In this study, a popularity evaluation of these diseases is done by using Google Trends with the worldwide and 52 weeks of 2017 settings. Zika disease is the most popular disease with big difference compared to the others for every week of 2017. With general overview, Zika's popularity is decreased during the year. Its average Google Search Interest value is 67.2%. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, and Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome comes next with 10.7%, 2.2%, and 0.1% averages, respectively. Lassa Fever, Marburg, and Nipah have common average, 0%. When only Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, Lassa Fever, Marburg, and Nipah are considered, Lassa Fever is the most popular with 4.9% average and then, Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, Nipah, and Marburg comes with 4.5%, 2.4%, and 2.2% averages, respectively. This study reveals the tendency of people which is based on their interest, curiosity, worry, anxiety, problem, and so forth regarding the seven diseases. So, the authorities would be motivated to make further studies and take precautions for this tendency.