• by April 13, 2003

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that Americans turned to the Web at work for information on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the week ending April 6th. Traffic to several health-related sites spiked as office workers logged online to read articles and learn more about the mysterious illness.

Top pages to these sites revealed that surfers were flocking to pages containing SARS content. Traffic to MSN Health with WebMD jumped 108% to 890,000 surfers, as compared to 428,000 surfers during the previous week. Of those visiting MSN Health, nearly 47% of the audience traffic accessed an article detailing information about the virus. WebMD attracted 840,000 visitors, a 62% increase over the previous week.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention attracted 58% more visitors. The top five most visited pages within the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention site, contained information on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The most visited page in AOL Health was an article on the virus; the site jumped 34% to 440,000 visitors. The U.S. National Institutes of Health site, which increased 16% in traffic, also contained a link to SARS information on their homepage.

"Surfers look to the Web as a trusted source for news and information," said Greg Bloom, senior Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "With the gravity and mystery that continues to shroud this illness, the viral nature of the Internet is helping to spread the word about the latest developments."

Additional Highlights from Nielsen//NetRatings' Week on The Web:

Last Minute Tax Filers Drive Traffic Online
Traffic to various tax sites spiked in traffic, as last minute tax filers rush to complete their returns. Taxcut.com and TurboTax.com spiked 36% and 35% at home, garnering 270,000 and 691,000 unique visitors respectively, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. HRBlock.com jumped 16% to 394,000 unique visitors and IRS.gov rose 10%, attracting nearly 1.5 million unique home visitors.

National Geographic Spikes for April Fools
Traffic to the National Geographic website soared 92% at home, for the week ending April 6th, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. In the spirit of April Fools' Day, 67% of the site's audience logged on to view a list of famous historical hoaxes.