Can we use online search query data to predict the next syphilis outbreak?

Considerable stir has been generated by Young & Aral (Y&A) in a recent modelling study claiming to have demonstrated the potential of Google online search data to identify and predict syphilis outbreaks. The application of digital technologies to the epidemiology of STIs, and of syphilis in particular, is nothing new (Simms & Petersen (STI)). The […]

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HIV/AIDS in the US: the importance of local perspectives

Some recent studies, in STI and other journals, have sought to demonstrate the importance of spatial location as a determinant of STI prevalence in its own right (Haley & Cooper (STI); ‘Scoping Location’ (STI/blogs))). On the face of it, Brawner & Schensul appear to share this aim, in their comparative neighbourhood-based case study of multilevel factors affecting HIV transmission […]

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‘Scoping’ location: the role of ‘place’/’space’ as an influence on HIV outcomes amongst young MSM

Bauermeister & Stephenson (B&S) is a scoping review addressing the impact of location – ‘space’ and ‘place’ – on HIV prevention and care outcomes for young MSM (YMSM).  It owes much to Diaz & Ayala and their concern to view human behaviour in terms of ‘social location’ ‘within a context of social oppressive factors’ rather […]

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