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Stone H, Heslop D, Lim S, Sarmiento I, Kunasekaran M, MacIntyre CR. Open-Source Intelligence for Detection of Radiological Events and Syndromes Following the Invasion of Ukraine in 2022: Observational Study. JMIR INFODEMIOLOGY 2023; 3:e39895. [PMID: 37379069 PMCID: PMC10365590 DOI: 10.2196/39895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND On February 25, 2022, Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl power plant after continuous fighting within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Continual events occurred in the month of March, which raised the risk of potential contamination of previously uncontaminated areas and the potential for impacts on human and environmental health. The disruption of war has caused interruptions to normal preventive activities, and radiation monitoring sensors have been nonfunctional. Open-source intelligence can be informative when formal reporting and data are unavailable. OBJECTIVE This paper aimed to demonstrate the value of open-source intelligence in Ukraine to identify signals of potential radiological events of health significance during the Ukrainian conflict. METHODS Data were collected from search terminology for radiobiological events and acute radiation syndrome detection between February 1 and March 20, 2022, using 2 open-source intelligence (OSINT) systems, EPIWATCH and Epitweetr. RESULTS Both EPIWATCH and Epitweetr identified signals of potential radiobiological events throughout Ukraine, particularly on March 4 in Kyiv, Bucha, and Chernobyl. CONCLUSIONS Open-source data can provide valuable intelligence and early warning about potential radiation hazards in conditions of war, where formal reporting and mitigation may be lacking, to enable timely emergency and public health responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haley Stone
- Biosecurity Program, The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
| | - David Heslop
- School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Samsung Lim
- School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Ines Sarmiento
- Biosecurity Program, The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
| | - Mohana Kunasekaran
- Biosecurity Program, The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
| | - C Raina MacIntyre
- Biosecurity Program, The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
- College of Public Service & Community Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
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2
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Espinosa L, Wijermans A, Orchard F, Höhle M, Czernichow T, Coletti P, Hermans L, Faes C, Kissling E, Mollet T. Epitweetr: Early warning of public health threats using Twitter data. Euro Surveill 2022; 27:2200177. [PMID: 36177867 PMCID: PMC9524055 DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.es.2022.27.39.2200177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BackgroundThe European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) systematically collates information from sources to rapidly detect early public health threats. The lack of a freely available, customisable and automated early warning tool using data from Twitter prompted the ECDC to develop epitweetr, which collects, geolocates and aggregates tweets generating signals and email alerts.AimThis study aims to compare the performance of epitweetr to manually monitoring tweets for the purpose of early detecting public health threats.MethodsWe calculated the general and specific positive predictive value (PPV) of signals generated by epitweetr between 19 October and 30 November 2020. Sensitivity, specificity, timeliness and accuracy and performance of tweet geolocation and signal detection algorithms obtained from epitweetr and the manual monitoring of 1,200 tweets were compared.ResultsThe epitweetr geolocation algorithm had an accuracy of 30.1% at national, and 25.9% at subnational levels. The signal detection algorithm had 3.0% general PPV and 74.6% specific PPV. Compared to manual monitoring, epitweetr had greater sensitivity (47.9% and 78.6%, respectively), and reduced PPV (97.9% and 74.6%, respectively). Median validation time difference between 16 common events detected by epitweetr and manual monitoring was -48.6 hours (IQR: -102.8 to -23.7).ConclusionEpitweetr has shown sufficient performance as an early warning tool for public health threats using Twitter data. Since epitweetr is a free, open-source tool with configurable settings and a strong automated component, it is expected to increase in usability and usefulness to public health experts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Espinosa
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ariana Wijermans
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Thomas Mollet
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden,Current affiliation: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland
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3
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Visual analytics of COVID-19 dissemination in São Paulo state, Brazil. J Biomed Inform 2021; 117:103753. [PMID: 33774202 PMCID: PMC7987578 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2020] [Revised: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Visual analytics techniques are useful tools to support decision-making and cope with increasing data, particularly to monitor natural or artificial phenomena. When monitoring disease progression, visual analytics approaches help decision-makers to understand or even prevent dissemination paths. In this paper, we propose a new visual analytics tool for monitoring COVID-19 dissemination. We use k-nearest neighbors of cities to mimic neighboring cities and analyze COVID-19 dissemination based on comparing a city under consideration and its neighborhood. Moreover, such analysis is performed within periods, which facilitates the assessment of isolation policies. We validate our tool by analyzing the progression of COVID-19 in neighboring cities of São Paulo state, Brazil.
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4
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Tu B, Wei L, Jia Y, Qian J. Using Baidu search values to monitor and predict the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China: - evidence from Baidu index. BMC Infect Dis 2021; 21:98. [PMID: 33478425 PMCID: PMC7819631 DOI: 10.1186/s12879-020-05740-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND New coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a severe threat to human life and caused a global pandemic. The current research aimed to explore whether the search-engine query patterns could serve as a potential tool for monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19. METHODS We collected the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases between January 11, 2020, and April 22, 2020, from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The search index values of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, cough, fatigue) were retrieved from the Baidu Index. Spearman's correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between the Baidu index values for each COVID-19-related symptom and the number of confirmed cases. Regional distributions among 34 provinces/ regions in China were also analyzed. RESULTS Daily growth of confirmed cases and Baidu index values for each COVID-19-related symptom presented robust positive correlations during the outbreak (fever: rs=0.705, p=9.623× 10- 6; cough: rs=0.592, p=4.485× 10- 4; fatigue: rs=0.629, p=1.494× 10- 4; sputum production: rs=0.648, p=8.206× 10- 5; shortness of breath: rs=0.656, p=6.182× 10-5). The average search-to-confirmed interval (STCI) was 19.8 days in China. The daily Baidu Index value's optimal time lags were the 4 days for cough, 2 days for fatigue, 3 days for sputum production, 1 day for shortness of breath, and 0 days for fever. CONCLUSION The searches of COVID-19-related symptoms on the Baidu search engine were significantly correlated to the number of confirmed cases. Since the Baidu search engine could reflect the public's attention to the pandemic and the regional epidemics of viruses, relevant departments need to pay more attention to areas with high searches of COVID-19-related symptoms and take precautionary measures to prevent these potentially infected persons from further spreading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bizhi Tu
- Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
| | - Laifu Wei
- Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
| | - Yaya Jia
- Department of Pediatrics, The Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
| | - Jun Qian
- Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China.
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5
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He Z, Zhang CJP, Huang J, Zhai J, Zhou S, Chiu JWT, Sheng J, Tsang W, Akinwunmi BO, Ming WK. A New Era of Epidemiology: Digital Epidemiology for Investigating the COVID-19 Outbreak in China. J Med Internet Res 2020; 22:e21685. [PMID: 32805703 PMCID: PMC7511225 DOI: 10.2196/21685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Revised: 07/23/2020] [Accepted: 08/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A novel pneumonia-like coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 has swept across China and the world. Public health measures that were effective in previous infection outbreaks (eg, wearing a face mask, quarantining) were implemented in this outbreak. Available multidimensional social network data that take advantage of the recent rapid development of information and communication technologies allow for an exploration of disease spread and control via a modernized epidemiological approach. By using spatiotemporal data and real-time information, we can provide more accurate estimates of disease spread patterns related to human activities and enable more efficient responses to the outbreak. Two real cases during the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrated the application of emerging technologies and digital data in monitoring human movements related to disease spread. Although the ethical issues related to using digital epidemiology are still under debate, the cases reported in this article may enable the identification of more effective public health measures, as well as future applications of such digitally directed epidemiological approaches in controlling infectious disease outbreaks, which offer an alternative and modern outlook on addressing the long-standing challenges in population health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zonglin He
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.,Faculty of Medicine, International School, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Casper J P Zhang
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jian Huang
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, St Mary's Campus, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jingyan Zhai
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Shuang Zhou
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Joyce Wai-Ting Chiu
- Faculty of Medicine, International School, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jie Sheng
- College of Economics, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Winghei Tsang
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Babatunde O Akinwunmi
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States.,Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Unit, Asthma Research Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Wai-Kit Ming
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
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6
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Gupta A, Katarya R. Social media based surveillance systems for healthcare using machine learning: A systematic review. J Biomed Inform 2020; 108:103500. [PMID: 32622833 PMCID: PMC7331523 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2019] [Revised: 06/21/2020] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Real-time surveillance in the field of health informatics has emerged as a growing domain of interest among worldwide researchers. Evolution in this field has helped in the introduction of various initiatives related to public health informatics. Surveillance systems in the area of health informatics utilizing social media information have been developed for early prediction of disease outbreaks and to monitor diseases. In the past few years, the availability of social media data, particularly Twitter data, enabled real-time syndromic surveillance that provides immediate analysis and instant feedback to those who are charged with follow-ups and investigation of potential outbreaks. In this paper, we review the recent work, trends, and machine learning(ML) text classification approaches used by surveillance systems seeking social media data in the healthcare domain. We also highlight the limitations and challenges followed by possible future directions that can be taken further in this domain. METHODS To study the landscape of research in health informatics performing surveillance of the various health-related data posted on social media or web-based platforms, we present a bibliometric analysis of the 1240 publications indexed in multiple scientific databases (IEEE, ACM Digital Library, ScienceDirect, PubMed) from the year 2010-2018. The papers were further reviewed based on the various machine learning algorithms used for analyzing health-related text posted on social media platforms. FINDINGS Based on the corpus of 148 selected articles, the study finds the types of social media or web-based platforms used for surveillance in the healthcare domain, along with the health topic(s) studied by them. In the corpus of selected articles, we found 26 articles were using machine learning technique. These articles were studied to find commonly used ML techniques. The majority of studies (24%) focused on the surveillance of flu or influenza-like illness (ILI). Twitter (64%) is the most popular data source to perform surveillance research using social media text data, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) (33%) being the most used ML algorithm for text classification. CONCLUSIONS The inclusion of online data in surveillance systems has improved the disease prediction ability over traditional syndromic surveillance systems. However, social media based surveillance systems have many limitations and challenges, including noise, demographic bias, privacy issues, etc. Our paper mentions future directions, which can be useful for researchers working in the area. Researchers can use this paper as a library for social media based surveillance systems in the healthcare domain and can expand such systems by incorporating the future works discussed in our paper.
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7
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Sips GJ, Dirven MJG, Donkervoort JT, van Kolfschoten FM, Schapendonk CME, Phan MVT, Bloem A, van Leeuwen AF, Trompenaars ME, Koopmans MPG, van der Eijk AA, de Graaf M, Fanoy EB. Norovirus outbreak in a natural playground: A One Health approach. Zoonoses Public Health 2020; 67:453-459. [PMID: 32037743 PMCID: PMC7318310 DOI: 10.1111/zph.12689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Revised: 12/24/2019] [Accepted: 01/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Norovirus constitutes the most frequently identified infectious cause of disease outbreaks associated with untreated recreational water. When investigating outbreaks related to surface water, a One Health approach is insightful. Historically, there has been a focus on potential contamination of recreational water by bird droppings and a recent publication demonstrating human noroviruses in bird faeces suggested this should be investigated in future water‐related norovirus outbreaks. Here, we describe a One Health approach investigating a norovirus outbreak in a natural playground. On social media, a large amount of waterfowl were reported to defecate near these playground premises leading to speculations about their potential involvement. Surface water, as well as human and bird faecal specimens, was tested for human noroviruses. Norovirus was found to be the most likely cause of the outbreak but there was no evidence for transmission via waterfowl. Cases had become known on social media prior to notification to the public health service underscoring the potential of online media as an early warning system. In view of known risk factors, advice was given for future outbreak investigations and natural playground design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregorius J Sips
- Public Health Service Rotterdam-Rijnmond, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | | | | | | | | | - My V T Phan
- Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Annemieke Bloem
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | | | | | - Marion P G Koopmans
- Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | | | - Miranda de Graaf
- Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Ewout B Fanoy
- Public Health Service Rotterdam-Rijnmond, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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8
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Yousefinaghani S, Dara R, Poljak Z, Bernardo TM, Sharif S. The Assessment of Twitter's Potential for Outbreak Detection: Avian Influenza Case Study. Sci Rep 2019; 9:18147. [PMID: 31796768 PMCID: PMC6890696 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54388-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Social media services such as Twitter are valuable sources of information for surveillance systems. A digital syndromic surveillance system has several advantages including its ability to overcome the problem of time delay in traditional surveillance systems. Despite the progress made with using digital syndromic surveillance systems, the possibility of tracking avian influenza (AI) using online sources has not been fully explored. In this study, a Twitter-based data analysis framework was developed to automatically monitor avian influenza outbreaks in a real-time manner. The framework was implemented to find worrisome posts and alerting news on Twitter, filter irrelevant ones, and detect the onset of outbreaks in several countries. The system collected and analyzed over 209,000 posts discussing avian influenza on Twitter from July 2017 to November 2018. We examined the potential of Twitter data to represent the date, severity and virus type of official reports. Furthermore, we investigated whether filtering irrelevant tweets can positively impact the performance of the system. The proposed approach was empirically evaluated using a real-world outbreak-reporting source. We found that 75% of real-world outbreak notifications of AI were identifiable from Twitter. This shows the capability of the system to serve as a complementary approach to official AI reporting methods. Moreover, we observed that one-third of outbreak notifications were reported on Twitter earlier than official reports. This feature could augment traditional surveillance systems and provide a possibility of early detection of outbreaks. This study could potentially provide a first stepping stone for building digital disease outbreak warning systems to assist epidemiologists and animal health professionals in making relevant decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rozita Dara
- School of Computer Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Zvonimir Poljak
- Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
| | - Theresa M Bernardo
- Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
| | - Shayan Sharif
- Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
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9
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van Gelder MMHJ, Rog A, Bredie SJH, Kievit W, Nordeng H, van de Belt TH. Social media monitoring on the perceived safety of medication use during pregnancy: A case study from the Netherlands. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2019; 85:2580-2590. [PMID: 31378978 PMCID: PMC6848893 DOI: 10.1111/bcp.14083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Revised: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 07/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Aims An increasing number of women trust the Internet for information about medication safety during pregnancy. This study aimed to evaluate the availability and accuracy of social media content on the perceived safety of medication use in pregnancy. Methods We performed a systematic search of posts related to medication safety during pregnancy in the Dutch language published on social media, blogs and forums between May 2011 and April 2016 using Coosto, a tool for social media monitoring. The perceived safety in the posts was compared with the Dutch Teratology Information Service (TIS) safety classifications. Results We included 1224 online posts, which described 1441 scenarios about medication safety in pregnancy. A total of 820 (57%) scenarios were in line with the TIS classification. Incorrect perception was higher for prescription medication compared to medication available over‐the‐counter (60 vs 25%). Furthermore, the safety classification of medications with a TIS classification on strict indication or second‐line drugs (93%) and medications with insufficient knowledge on their safety during pregnancy (76%) was more likely to be incorrectly perceived by the public compared to medications with the TIS classification safe (24%). Conclusions Social media monitoring may be useful for surveillance of potentially unsafe use of medications in pregnancy. Many social posts related to medication safety during pregnancy provide inaccurate information. As this information may affect women's perceptions and decisions, accurate communication between healthcare providers and pregnant women regarding the benefits and risks of medications is vital.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marleen M H J van Gelder
- Department for Health Evidence, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Radboud REshape Innovation Center, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Annemarije Rog
- Department for Health Evidence, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Sebastian J H Bredie
- Radboud REshape Innovation Center, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Department of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Wietske Kievit
- Department for Health Evidence, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Hedvig Nordeng
- PharmacoEpidemiology and Drug Safety Research Group, Department of Pharmacy and PharmaTox Strategic Research Initiative, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Child Health and Development, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Tom H van de Belt
- Radboud REshape Innovation Center, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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10
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Saris K, Meis JF, Baño JR, Tacconelli E, van de Belt TH, Voss A. Does Online Search Behavior Coincide with Candida auris Cases? An Exploratory Study. J Fungi (Basel) 2019; 5:jof5020044. [PMID: 31167409 PMCID: PMC6616941 DOI: 10.3390/jof5020044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2019] [Revised: 05/16/2019] [Accepted: 05/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Candida auris is an emerging multidrug resistant infectious yeast which is challenging to eradicate and despite available laboratory methods is still difficult to identify especially in less developed countries. To limit the rapid spread of C. auris, quick and accurate detection is essential. From the perspective of disease surveillance, additional methods of tracking this yeast are needed. In order to increase global preparedness, we explored the use of online search behavior to monitor the recent global spread of C. auris. We used Google Trends to assess online search behavior on C. auris from January 2016 until August 2018. Weekly Google Trends results were counted as hits and compared to confirmed C. auris cases obtained via publications and a global expert network of key opinion leaders. A total of 44 countries generated a hit, of which 30% (13/44) were confirmed known cases, 34% (15/44) were missed known cases, 34% (15/44) were hits for unknown cases, and 2% (1/44) were confirmed unknown cases. Conclusions: Google Trends searches is rapidly able to provide information on countries with an increased search interest in C. auris. However, Google Trends search results do not generally coincide with C. auris cases or clusters. This study did show that using Google Trends provides both insight into the known and highlights the unknown, providing potential for surveillance and tracking and hence aid in taking timely precautionary measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Saris
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ), 6532SZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- REshape Center for Innovation, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Jacques F Meis
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ), 6532SZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Center of Expertise in Mycology, Radboudumc/CWZ, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Jesús Rodriguez Baño
- Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Preventive Medicine Unit, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, University of Sevilla, IBiS, 41009 Seville, Spain.
| | - Evelina Tacconelli
- Department of Diagnostic and Public Health, Infectious Diseases, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy.
| | - Tom H van de Belt
- REshape Center for Innovation, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Radboud Institute for Health sciences, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Andreas Voss
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ), 6532SZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- REshape Center for Innovation, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc, 6525GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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11
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Bragazzi NL, Mahroum N. Google Trends Predicts Present and Future Plague Cases During the Plague Outbreak in Madagascar: Infodemiological Study. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2019; 5:e13142. [PMID: 30763255 PMCID: PMC6429048 DOI: 10.2196/13142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2018] [Revised: 01/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Plague is a highly infectious zoonotic disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis. Three major forms of the disease are known: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague. Though highly related to the past, plague still represents a global public health concern. Cases of plague continue to be reported worldwide. In recent months, pneumonic plague cases have been reported in Madagascar. However, despite such a long-standing and rich history, it is rather difficult to get a comprehensive overview of the general situation. Within the framework of electronic health (eHealth), in which people increasingly search the internet looking for health-related material, new information and communication technologies could enable researchers to get a wealth of data, which could complement traditional surveillance of infectious diseases. Objective In this study, we aimed to assess public reaction regarding the recent plague outbreak in Madagascar by quantitatively characterizing the public’s interest. Methods We captured public interest using Google Trends (GT) and correlated it to epidemiological real-world data in terms of incidence rate and spread pattern. Results Statistically significant positive correlations were found between GT search data and confirmed (R2=0.549), suspected (R2=0.265), and probable (R2=0.518) cases. From a geospatial standpoint, plague-related GT queries were concentrated in Toamasina (100%), Toliara (68%), and Antananarivo (65%). Concerning the forecasting models, the 1-day lag model was selected as the best regression model. Conclusions An earlier digital Web search reaction could potentially contribute to better management of outbreaks, for example, by designing ad hoc interventions that could contain the infection both locally and at the international level, reducing its spread.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Luigi Bragazzi
- Department of Health Sciences, Postgraduate School of Public Health, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - Naim Mahroum
- Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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