H1N1, Credit Blogs and Social Media: Health Officials on Playboy Mansion
Health officials say H1N1 infected DOMAINfest attendees and evaluates role of social media in responding to outbreak.
We go to domain conferences. Health officials go to Centers for Disease Control conferences.
You can imagine these events as rather dull. But the prior week officials from Los Angeles got to spice things up a bit as they discussed the illness outbreak following the DOMAINfest conference in February at the Playboy Mansion. They managed to throw in another buzz word: social media.
Their conclusions:
-the hot tub at the mansion was the source of legionella bacteria at the conference
-social media helped to get the word out and track the illness
-3 people tested positive for H1N1
-The relative risk for illness for people who attended the party was 3.8x of not attending the party
-they could not confirm a single case of legionellosis among attendees
Their presentation to fellow health officials was titled “Role of Social Media in Investigating an Outbreak: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
The health officials stated they used blogs, twitter, Facebook, and an online survey to assess symptoms and figure out the timing.
439 people responded to the official survey and 123 met the “case definition” for the illness.
Although online tools helped, the health officials noted that they may have also caused “recall” amongst attendees. I believe this means it may have induced people to think they were sick or had certain symptoms even though they didn’t.
