Google tracks flu

Key

Question 1
a) True Americans falling ill searched for advice about flu online using its web facilities before they sought help from a doctor.
b) False. Traditional survey techniques employed by the CDC take about two weeks to precisely identify outbreaks
c) True A senior health expert from the United Nations told the BBC, Google Flu Trends would have to prove its reliability over time.
d) False nations where health authorities don't have a reliable database of infectious diseases.

Question 2
a) Google records instances of people typing in key words like ‘flu symptoms’ or ‘muscle aches’. It
highlights areas of the USA where there is a high number of these searches. This high number relates directly to the number of cases of flu in that area.

b) It says that you can go and have a flu injection to prevent catching flu.

Question 3
a) to come up with
b) to roll out
c) measures

Qestion 4
a) A new online tool has been launched to help track the spread of influenza.
b) Google said that they had found that there was a very close relationship between the frequency of search queries and the number of people who were experiencing flu symptoms each week.
c) When the web tool was tested, it showed (that) it can/could detect regional outbreaks up to ten days earlier.