title: Internet-based media coverage on dengue in Sri Lanka between 2007 and 2015.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Internet-based media coverage to explore the extent of awareness of a disease and perceived severity of an outbreak at a national level can be used for early outbreak detection. Dengue has emerged as a major public health problem in Sri Lanka since 2009.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare Internet references to dengue in Sri Lana with references to other diseases (malaria and influenza) in Sri Lanka and to compare Internet references to dengue in Sri Lanka with notified cases of dengue in Sri Lanka.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined Internet-based news media articles on dengue queried from HealthMap for Sri Lanka, for the period January 2007 to November 2015. For comparative purposes, we compared hits on dengue with hits on influenza and malaria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 565 hits on dengue between 2007 and 2015, with a rapid rise in 2009 and followed by a rising trend ever since. These hits were highly correlated with the national epidemiological trend of dengue. The volume of digital media coverage of dengue was much higher than of influenza and malaria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dengue in Sri Lanka is receiving increasing media attention. Our findings underpin previous claims that digital media reports reflect national epidemiological trends, both in annual trends and inter-annual seasonal variation, thus acting as proxy biosurveillance to provide early warning and situation awareness of emerging infectious diseases.
authors.affiliation: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.|Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.|Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; awilder-smith@ntu.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Annelies
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilder-Smith
authors.affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.affiliation: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.|College of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Yesim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tozan
authors.affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brownstein
mesh_terms: D002980:Climate; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000517:prevention & control; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human; D020407:Internet; D008288:Malaria; D008402:Mass Media / Q000639:trends*; D011634:Public Health; D013188:Sri Lanka
keywords: Healthmap; Internet; Sri Lanka; awareness about dengue; dengue; emergence of dengue; influenza; malaria; media; news coverage