The Potential Capability of Social Media as a Component of Food Safety and Food Terrorism Surveillance Systems

Newkirk, Ryan; Bender, Jeffrey B.; Hedberg, Craig W.

doi:10.1089/fpd.2011.0990

Cited by 37 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Foodborne illness is also vastly underreported since most people who are affected do not seek medical attention nor receive laboratory confirmation of the causative agent (necessary steps to trigger declaration of an outbreak). Newkirk et al [41] make the case for using real-time data from social media to bypass significant delays in traditional foodborne surveillance activities, estimating a potential savings of 5-19 days in the reporting timeline for salmonellosis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scoping Review on Search Queries and Social Media for Disease Surveillance: A Chronology of Innovation

Bernardo¹,

Rajić²,

Young³

et al. 2013

J Med Internet Res

153

136

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BackgroundThe threat of a global pandemic posed by outbreaks of influenza H5N1 (1997) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS, 2002), both diseases of zoonotic origin, provoked interest in improving early warning systems and reinforced the need for combining data from different sources. It led to the use of search query data from search engines such as Google and Yahoo! as an indicator of when and where influenza was occurring. This methodology has subsequently been extended to other diseases and has led to experimentation with new types of social media for disease surveillance.ObjectiveThe objective of this scoping review was to formally assess the current state of knowledge regarding the use of search queries and social media for disease surveillance in order to inform future work on early detection and more effective mitigation of the effects of foodborne illness.MethodsStructured scoping review methods were used to identify, characterize, and evaluate all published primary research, expert review, and commentary articles regarding the use of social media in surveillance of infectious diseases from 2002-2011.ResultsThirty-two primary research articles and 19 reviews and case studies were identified as relevant. Most relevant citations were peer-reviewed journal articles (29/32, 91%) published in 2010-11 (28/32, 88%) and reported use of a Google program for surveillance of influenza. Only four primary research articles investigated social media in the context of foodborne disease or gastroenteritis. Most authors (21/32 articles, 66%) reported that social media-based surveillance had comparable performance when compared to an existing surveillance program. The most commonly reported strengths of social media surveillance programs included their effectiveness (21/32, 66%) and rapid detection of disease (21/32, 66%). The most commonly reported weaknesses were the potential for false positive (16/32, 50%) and false negative (11/32, 34%) results. Most authors (24/32, 75%) recommended that social media programs should primarily be used to support existing surveillance programs.ConclusionsThe use of search queries and social media for disease surveillance are relatively recent phenomena (first reported in 2006). Both the tools themselves and the methodologies for exploiting them are evolving over time. While their accuracy, speed, and cost compare favorably with existing surveillance systems, the primary challenge is to refine the data signal by reducing surrounding noise. Further developments in digital disease surveillance have the potential to improve sensitivity and specificity, passively through advances in machine learning and actively through engagement of users. Adoption, even as supporting systems for existing surveillance, will entail a high level of familiarity with the tools and collaboration across jurisdictions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scoping Review on Search Queries and Social Media for Disease Surveillance: A Chronology of Innovation

Bernardo¹,

Rajić²,

Young³

et al. 2013

J Med Internet Res

153

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Social media and similar data sources provide one approach to improving food safety through surveillance (19). One major advantage of these nontraditional data sources is timeliness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online reports of foodborne illness capture foods implicated in official foodborne outbreak reports

Nsoesie

Kluberg

Brownstein

2014

Preventive Medicine

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Objective Traditional surveillance systems only capture a fraction of the estimated 48 million yearly cases of foodborne illness in the United States. We assessed whether foodservice reviews on Yelp.com (a business review site) can be used to support foodborne illness surveillance efforts. Methods We obtained reviews from 2005–2012 of 5824 foodservice businesses closest to 29 colleges. After extracting recent reviews describing episodes of foodborne illness, we compared implicated foods to foods in outbreak reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Results Broadly, the distribution of implicated foods across five categories was as follows: aquatic (16% Yelp, 12% CDC), dairy-eggs (23% Yelp, 23% CDC), fruits-nuts (7% Yelp, 7% CDC), meat-poultry (32% Yelp, 33% CDC), and vegetables (22% Yelp, 25% CDC). The distribution of foods across 19 more specific food categories was also similar, with spearman correlations ranging from 0.60 to 0.85 for 2006–2011. The most implicated food categories in both Yelp and CDC were beef, dairy, grains-beans, poultry and vine-stalk. Conclusions Based on observations in this study and the increased usage of social media, we posit that online illness reports could complement traditional surveillance systems by providing near real-time information on foodborne illnesses, implicated foods and locations.

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“…Despite the widespread use and timely availability of information on websites such as Facebook, shortcomings include the limited sensitivity and positive predictive value of user-generated content, including self-identified ‘friends’ or acquaintances. 24 However, in the context of dwindling public health resources, the use of social media could be considered during investigations not only for TB, but also for outbreaks such as measles and meningitis, where timely administration of post-exposure treatments is required.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outbreak of pyrazinamide-monoresistant tuberculosis identified using genotype cluster and social media analysis

Thomas

Heysell

Houpt

et al. 2014

int j tuberc lung dis

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SUMMARY SETTING Monoresistance to pyrazinamide (PZA) has infrequently been associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. OBJECTIVE To report an outbreak of PZA-monoresistant M. tuberculosis in Virginia involving two genotype clusters from December 2004 to August 2010. RESULTS Thirty cases were identified involving a predominantly young, US-born population with histories of substance use and incarceration and a large proportion of children aged <15 years (n = 6, 20%); of these, 23 cases (77%) were culture-confirmed as M. tuberculosis complex. DNA fingerprinting and molecular analysis of the PZA resistance gene, pncA, demonstrated a clonal strain that was not M. bovis. Genotypic data provided the initial link between seemingly unrelated cases, and helped reveal a historic genotype cluster of cases from 2004. Further genotype cluster and contact investigation procedures, including the novel use of the social networking website Facebook.com, revealed additional links between the 2004 and 2009 genotype clusters and described an ongoing, extensive outbreak necessitating an enhanced screening and treatment protocol for contacts. CONCLUSIONS This outbreak demonstrates how tuberculosis can spread through a young, vulnerable population. The use of genotypic data and the novel incorporation of social media investigations were critical to understanding the settings and context of infectivity.

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The Potential Capability of Social Media as a Component of Food Safety and Food Terrorism Surveillance Systems

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Scoping Review on Search Queries and Social Media for Disease Surveillance: A Chronology of Innovation

Scoping Review on Search Queries and Social Media for Disease Surveillance: A Chronology of Innovation

Online reports of foodborne illness capture foods implicated in official foodborne outbreak reports

Outbreak of pyrazinamide-monoresistant tuberculosis identified using genotype cluster and social media analysis

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