Details:

Alternative Title:
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
Personal Author:
Harrison, Cassandra ; Jorder, Mohip ; Stern, Henri ; Stavinsky, Faina ; Reddy, Vasudha ; ... More +
Harrison, Cassandra ; Jorder, Mohip ; Stern, Henri ; Stavinsky, Faina ; Reddy, Vasudha ; Hanson, Heather ; Waechter, HaeNa ; Lowe, Luther ; Gravano, Luis ; Balter, Sharon Less -
Description:
While investigating an outbreak of gastrointestinal disease associated with a restaurant, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) noted that patrons had reported illnesses on the business review website Yelp (http://www.yelp.com) that had not been reported to DOHMH. To explore the potential of using Yelp to identify unreported outbreaks, DOHMH worked with Columbia University and Yelp on a pilot project to prospectively identify restaurant reviews on Yelp that referred to foodborne illness. During July 1, 2012-March 31, 2013, approximately 294,000 Yelp restaurant reviews were analyzed by a software program developed for the project. The program identified 893 reviews that required further evaluation by a foodborne disease epidemiologist. Of the 893 reviews, 499 (56%) described an event consistent with foodborne illness (e.g., patrons reported diarrhea or vomiting after their meal), and 468 of those described an illness within 4 weeks of the review or did not provide a period. Only 3% of the illnesses referred to in the 468 reviews had also been reported directly to DOHMH via telephone and online systems during the same period. Closer examination determined that 129 of the 468 reviews required further investigation, resulting in telephone interviews with 27 reviewers. From those 27 interviews, three previously unreported restaurant-related outbreaks linked to 16 illnesses met DOHMH outbreak investigation criteria; environmental investigation of the three restaurants identified multiple food-handling violations. The results suggest that online restaurant reviews might help to identify unreported outbreaks of foodborne illness and restaurants with deficiencies in food handling. However, investigating reports of illness in this manner might require considerable time and resources.
Subjects:
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Articles Disease Outbreaks Foodborne Diseases Food Handling Humans Internet Pilot Projects Population Surveillance Restaurants
Source:
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014; 63(20):441-445.
Pubmed ID:
24848215
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4584915
Document Type:
Journal Article
Place as Subject:
New York City, NY
Collection(s):
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:e81b073f989befaf2ff1bd50bd8326b6396847e1c4b88de21f964291e9466aad
Download URL:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/54899/cdc_54899_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	441-445.nxml	xml
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  	441-445f1.jpg	jpeg

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