Characterizing Ebola Transmission Patterns Based on Internet News Reports

Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Julie M CleatonG Chowell

Abstract

Detailed information on patient exposure, contact patterns, and discharge status is rarely available in real time from traditional surveillance systems in the context of an emerging infectious disease outbreak. Here, we validate the systematic collection of Internet news reports to characterize epidemiological patterns of Ebola virus disease (EVD) infections during the West African 2014-2015 outbreak. Based on 58 news reports, we analyzed 79 EVD clusters (286 cases) ranging in size from 1 to 33 cases between January 2014 and February 2015 in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The majority of reported exposures stemmed from contact with family members (57.3%) followed by hospitals (18.2%) and funerals (12.7%). Our data indicate that funeral exposure was significantly more frequent in Sierra Leone (27.3%) followed by Guinea (18.2%) and Liberia (1.8%; χ(2) test; P < .0001). Funeral exposure was the dominant route of transmission until April 2014 (60%) and was replaced with hospital exposure in June 2014-July 2014 (70%), both of which declined after interventions were put in place. The mean reproduction number of the outbreak was 2.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8, 2.7). The case fatality rate was estimated at 74.4% (95% CI, 68...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 4, 2016·Epidemics·Bruce PellGerardo Chowell
Feb 1, 2019·Journal of Global Health·Nefti-Eboni BempongAntoine Flahault
Oct 7, 2016·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Gerardo ChowellSeyed M Moghadas
Mar 18, 2020·PloS One·Aditya JoshiC Raina MacIntyre
Aug 24, 2017·The Journal of Infectious Diseases·Gerardo ChowellCecile Viboud
Dec 10, 2015·ELife·Jean-Paul ChretienDylan B George
Mar 14, 2020·Journal of Medical Internet Research·Joana M BarrosDietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann
Aug 3, 2021·Frontiers in Public Health·Willy A Valdivia-Granda
Sep 24, 2021·The International Journal of Health Planning and Management·Gamze Bayın Donar, Seda Aydan

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