FoodborneOutbreak

This VRE supports outbreak investigators in identifying suspect food items at the first steps of an investigation, by providing access to a set of available records of past outbreaks where the same pathogen type has been identified. The objective is to foster a targeted and risk-based sampling strategy of suspect foods that accelerates the process of identifying the source of an ongoing outbreak. Data will be stored and presented in a searchable database, and provided by and shared among the members of the VRE. The database will live from the contribution of the VRE members (i.e. be populated with records of previous outbreaks) at the same time as it serves their purpose: an outbreak investigator can use the database to search for records of past outbreaks where a specific foodborne pathogen type (e.g. serotype, PFGE, MLVA, MLST, …) has been identified, and obtain information on the location, setting, cases and the food source of those outbreaks. It represents a tool from the VRE community to the VRE community. The VRE contains basic functionalities such as a workspace for sharing items of interest (e.g. outbreak-related scientific publications or reports), a social networking area for supporting the discussions among its members about ongoing outbreaks or retrospective analyses of past outbreaks, and a calendar to real-time sharing of the occurrence of an outbreak. It is also additionally equipped with features that allow the analysis and visualization (graphical and geospatial) of the data shared.