MEDISYS
MEDISYS is a media monitoring system providing event-based surveillance to rapidly identify potential public health threats using information from media reports. The system displays articles with interest to public health (e. g. diseases, plant pests, psychoactive substances), analyses news reports and warns users with automatically generated alerts. The information processed by MEDISYS is derived from the Europe Media Monitor (EMM) developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) (http://medisys.newsbrief.eu/). ECDC created three search tools for HPV that can be consulted by the large public:
A global girl gang or how new media opened the gates for the viral spread of panic around HPV vaccine risks
In the Lancet Heidi Larson reflects on the role of new media in providing a platform to share personal views and testimonies about HPV vaccine risks as compelling 'evidence' that is not found in scientific journals. Its impact is not trivial as can be noticed from the high level of reported adverse events and the difficulties in introducing the HPV vaccine in a number of countries.