Lead image for Ebola search surge in Kenya: What are Kenyans asking Google?.
At 8:36pm on August 11, interest in the word “Ebola” suddenly surged on Google Search in Kenya, registering a breakout of more than 5,000 per cent compared with the preceding 24 hours and the same period a week earlier, according to Google Trends data reviewed by The Standard.
The searches went beyond the name of the disease. “Ebola outbreak” was the leading related search, followed by “what is Ebola” and “what causes Ebola”.
The spike does not mean Kenyans are infected, nor does a surge in Google searches constitute evidence of an outbreak in the country. Rather, it offers a snapshot of public attention at a time when an infectious disease is making headlines.
Google Trends has previously provided useful insight into what people are concerned about during major events. During the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, search patterns showed how Kenyans tried to understand and respond to an unfamiliar health threat.
What Covid taught us
Google’s 2020 Year in Search data provides a revealing record of the questions Kenyans were asking during the pandemic.
“Coronavirus” topped Kenya’s trending health searches, followed by terms such as “quarantine”, “dexamethasone”, “Pfizer”, “Vitamin C”, “KEMSA”, “chloroquine”, “asymptomatic”, “sanitiser” and “ventilator”.