U.S.

The Flu in 2013, According to Google

Flu season has hit hard particularly early and in a particularly nasty fashion this year, and now you can look at its path by way of Google searches. 

By Esther Zuckerman
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

Flu season has hit hard particularly early and in a particularly nasty fashion this year (here's our full update on just how bad this flu season might get), and now you can look at its path by way of Google searches.

Google explains that it "uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity," finding that  searches for flu-related searches typically mirror the actual reach of flu symptoms. Looking at the Google Flu Trends graph for this year one can see how the flu has spiked in such an early and dramatic way. Only the 2009-2010 season spiked earlier, and wasn't nearly as intense.

For more on how the flu is spreading across the country, watch this video from Sickweather:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.