Early detection of perceived risk among users of a UK travel health website compared with internet search activity and media coverage during the 2015-2016 Zika virus outbreak: an observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in the Americas in 2015-2016 posed a novel global threat due to the association with congenital malformations and its rapid spread. Timely information about the spread of the disease was paramount to public health bodies issuing travel advisories. This paper looks at the online interaction with a national travel health website during the outbreak and compares this to trends in internet searches and news media output.

Methods

Time trends were created for weekly views of ZIKV-related pages on a UK travel health website, relative search volumes for 'Zika' on Google UK, ZIKV-related items aggregated by Google UK News and rank of ZIKV travel advisories among all other pages between 15 November 2015 and 20 August 2016.

Results

Time

SUBMITTER: Petersen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5589019 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature