Mining Social Media Data to Assess the Risk of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections from Allergen Immunotherapy

Publication date: Available online 2 February 2019

Source: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Author(s): Kimberly G. Blumenthal, Maxim Topaz, Li Zhou, Tyler Harkness, Roee Sa'adon, Ofrit Bar-Bachar, Aidan A. Long

Abstract

Background

Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) treatment for allergic rhinitis and asthma is used by 2.6 million Americans annually. Clinical and sterility testing studies identify no risk of contamination or infection from extracts prepared using recommended aseptic techniques, but regulatory concerns persist. Social media can be used to investigate rare adverse effects not captured by traditional studies.

Objective

To investigate large social media databases for suggestion of AIT skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) risk and compare this risk to a comparator procedure with a sterile pharmaceutical.

Methods

We analyzed USA-restricted data from over 10 common text-based social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit between 2012-2016. We employed natural language processing (NLP) to identify posts related to AIT and, separately, Influenza vaccination (comparator procedure). NLP was followed by manual review to identify posts suggesting a possible SSTI associated with either AIT or Influenza vaccination. SSTI frequencies with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were compared.

Results

We identified 25,126 AIT posts, which were matched by social media platform to 25,126 Influenza vaccination-related posts. NLP identified 4,088 (16.3%) AIT posts that required manual review, with 6 posts (0.02%, 95%CI 0.005% to 0.043%) indicative of possible AIT-related SSTI. NLP identified 2,689 (10.7%) Influenza posts that required manual review, with 7 posts (0.03%, 95%CI 0.007% to 0.048%) indicative of possible Influenza vaccination-related SSTI.

Conclusion

Social media data suggest that SSTI from AIT and Influenza vaccination are equally rare events. Given that AIT's SSTI risk appears comparable to the risk using a sterile pharmaceutical based on social media data, current aseptic technique procedures seem safe.

http://bit.ly/2BjMKjh