Research Article
Tracking Media Reports on the Shiga Toxin-Producing O104: H4 Outbreak in Germany
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_26, author={Jens Linge and Jas Mantero and Flavio Fuart and Jenya Belyaeva and Martin Atkinson and Erik Goot}, title={Tracking Media Reports on the Shiga Toxin-Producing O104: H4 Outbreak in Germany}, proceedings={Electronic Healthcare. 4th International Conference, eHealth 2011, M\^{a}laga, Spain, November 21-23, 2011, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={E-HEALTH}, year={2012}, month={5}, keywords={epidemic intelligence event-based surveillance E. coli EHEC MedISys}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_26} }- Jens Linge
Jas Mantero
Flavio Fuart
Jenya Belyaeva
Martin Atkinson
Erik Goot
Year: 2012
Tracking Media Reports on the Shiga Toxin-Producing O104: H4 Outbreak in Germany
E-HEALTH
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_26
Abstract
In May 2011, an outbreak of enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) occurred in northern Germany. The Shiga toxin-producing strain O104:H4 infected several thousand people, frequently leading to haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and gastroenteritis (GI). First reports about the outbreak appeared in the German media on Saturday 21st of May 2011; the media attention rose to high levels in the following two weeks, with up to 2000 articles categorized per day by the automatic threat detection system MedISys (Medical Information System). In this article, we illustrate how MedISys detected the sudden increase in reporting on on 21st of May and how automatic analysis of the reporting provided epidemic intelligence information to follow the event. Categorization, filtering and clustering allowed identifying different aspects within the unfolding news event, analyzing general media and official sites in parallel.