Infographic: How a City Health Department Uses Social Media

Foodborne illnesses are consistently underreported. Social media may help.

emma yasinski
| 1 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00
Share

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, VIOLETASTOIMENOVA

In 2015, the St. Louis Department of Health partnered with Health Map to leverage social media to help improve the reporting of foodborne illnesses. A customized algorithm notifies the STLDOH if an individual in the city or surrounding area posts a tweet containing specific words or phrases that suggest he or she has food poisoning. Then, an STLDOH employee responds to the tweet from the department’s Twitter account asking for more details that can help them pinpoint the source of the person’s illness.

During the first seven months, health department officials responded to 193 tweets, which resulted in 13 official reports of food poisoning: five in St. Louis and eight from nearby towns. The STLDOH received 31 other reports of foodborne illnesses during that same time frame. The team responds to upwards of 300 tweets each year, leading to up to 20 cases of illness reported ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • emma yasinski

    Emma Yasinski

    Emma is a Florida-based freelance journalist and regular contributor for The Scientist.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio