Dissemination of Health Information within Social Networks

State agencies responsible for managing various risks in social life issue advisories to the public to prevent and mitigate various hazards. In this chapter we will investigate, how information about a common food born health hazard, known as Campylobacter, spreads once it was delivered to a random sample of individuals in France. The Campylobacter is most commonly found in chicken meat and causes diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fever. The illness normally lasts a week but in rare cases patients can develop an auto-immune disorder, called Guillain-Barré syndrome, that leads to paralysis and can be deadly. Campylobacter together with Salmonella is responsible for more that eighty percent of food born illnesses in France and strikes over 20,000 people each year. People can take simple steps to avoid infection by cleaning their hands, knives, cutting boards and other food items touched by raw chicken meat and by cooking the meat thoroughly.