Internet searches about gastrointestinal symptoms could reveal coronavirus clusters

Internet searches on gastrointestinal symptoms predated the rise of coronavirus cases weeks later, researchers at Massachusetts General hospital found, demonstrating a new early warning system for COVID-19 hotspots. Patients with COVID-19 often report gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain and diarrhoea, prompting scientists to monitor search trends for these symptoms 

Surveyed 15 states 

For the study, researchers internet search interest of people in loss of taste and appetite and diarrhoea with reported cases of COVID-9  in 15 US US states. Using Alphabet Inc.’s Google Trends online tool, they analysed the data from January 20 to April 20. As a result,  they found the volume of searches correlated most strongly with cases in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois -- states with high disease burden -- three to four weeks later.

“Our data underscore the importance of GI symptoms as a potential harbinger of Covid-19 infection and suggests that Google Trends may be a valuable tool for prediction of pandemics with GI manifestations," Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist and the director of Mass General’s gastrointestinal motility laboratory, and colleagues wrote in the study.

The research published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hematology showed that the same approach to trace Influenza trends more than a decade ago could be used to trace coronavirus clusters.

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This comes as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report revealed that children with mild or no symptoms of COVID-19 can spread the virus to the next person. According to the report, twelve children, including one eight-month-old who were infected in a child care facility transmitted the virus to at least 12 people outside the facilities. The data revealed that children can carry the virus from child care settings to their homes. 

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