Dengue Digital Surveillance Sensors

Attribute	Details
Source Name	`dengue_sensors`
Data Source	Various digital data streams
Geographic Levels	Countries and territories in the Americas (see Geographic Codes) Note: Data availability varies by country.
Temporal Granularity	Weekly (Epiweek)
Reporting Cadence	Inactive - No longer updated since 2020w32
Temporal Scope Start	2014w04
License	CC BY

Overview

This endpoint provides access to Delphi’s digital surveillance sensor estimates for dengue activity. These sensors are designed to provide early indicators of disease prevalence by aggregating indicators from digital data streams, specifically Google Health Trends and internet search query volume.

By tracking these digital indicators, the sensors can help to identify trends and potential outbreaks before official laboratory-confirmed results are released. These sensors were specifically developed to support modeling and forecasting efforts for infectious diseases in countries and territories across the Americas.

General topics not specific to any particular endpoint are discussed in the API overview. Such topics include: contributing, citing, and data licensing.

Note: Restricted access: This endpoint requires authentication.

Indicators

The following indicators are available. Both represent estimated dengue case counts derived from digital data streams.

Name	Description	Source
`ght`	Estimate based on Google Health Trends	GHT
`isch`	Estimate based on Internet Search	n/a

The API
1. Parameters
  1. Required
2. Response
  1. Value Interpretation
Example URLs
1. Dengue Sensors on 2015w01 (Puerto Rico)
Code Samples
1. Legacy Clients

The API

The base URL is: https://api.delphi.cmu.edu/epidata/dengue_sensors/

Parameters

Required

Parameter	Description	Type
`auth`	authentication token	string
`epiweeks`	epiweeks (see Date Formats)	`list` of epiweeks
`names`	indicator names (see Indicators)	`list` of strings
`locations`	country or territory codes (see Geographic Codes)	`list` of strings

Response

Field	Description	Type
`result`	result code: 1 = success, 2 = too many results, -2 = no results	integer
`epidata`	list of results	array of objects
`epidata[].location`	country or territory code. See Geographic Codes	string
`epidata[].epiweek`	epiweek (YYYYWW)	integer
`epidata[].name`	indicator name. See Indicators	string
`epidata[].value`	estimated number of dengue cases (see below)	float
`message`	`success` or error message	string

Value Interpretation

The value field for all indicators (ght, isch) represents the estimated number of dengue cases in the specified location and week. These values are generated by fitting digital indicators to official case counts.

Note: The ght indicator provided here is a case estimate, which is different from the raw search volume returned by the separate Google Health Trends endpoint.

Example URLs

Dengue Sensors on 2015w01 (Puerto Rico)

https://api.delphi.cmu.edu/epidata/dengue_sensors/?auth=...&locations=pr&epiweeks=201501&names=ght

{
  "result": 1,
  "epidata": [
    {
      "location": "pr",
      "epiweek": 201501,
      "name": "ght",
      "value": 103.676
    }
  ],
  "message": "success"
}

Code Samples

Libraries are available for R and Python. The following samples show how to import the library and fetch Dengue Sensors data for Puerto Rico for epiweek 201501.

Install the package using pip:

pip install -e "git+https://github.com/cmu-delphi/epidatpy.git#egg=epidatpy"

# Import
from epidatpy import CovidcastEpidata, EpiDataContext, EpiRange
# Fetch data
epidata = EpiDataContext()
res = epidata.dengue_sensors('auth_token', ['ght'], ['pr'], [201501])
print(res['result'], res['message'], len(res['epidata']))

library(epidatr)
# Fetch data
res <- pvt_dengue_sensors(auth = 'auth_token', names = 'ght', locations = 'pr', epiweeks = 201501)
print(res)

Legacy Clients

We recommend using our client libraries: epidatr for R and epidatpy for Python. Legacy clients are also available for Python, R, and JavaScript.

Optionally install the package using pip(env):

pip install delphi-epidata

# Import
from delphi_epidata import Epidata
# Fetch data
res = Epidata.dengue_sensors('auth_token', ['ght'], ['pr'], [201501])
print(res['result'], res['message'], len(res['epidata']))

Place delphi_epidata.R from this repo next to your R script.

source("delphi_epidata.R")
# Fetch data
res <- Epidata$dengue_sensors(auth = "auth_token", sensors = list("ght"), locations = list("pr"), epiweeks = list(201501))
print(res$message)
print(length(res$epidata))

<!-- Imports -->
<script src="delphi_epidata.js"></script>
<!-- Fetch data -->
<script>
  EpidataAsync.dengue_sensors('auth_token', ['ght'], 'pr', [201501]).then((res) => {
    console.log(res.result, res.message, res.epidata != null ? res.epidata.length : 0);
  });
</script>