How Geospatial Data And Technologies Can Help In Disease Prevention And Control
How Geospatial Data And Technologies Can Help In Disease Prevention And Control
Credit: www.healthmap.org/en/
Many datasets can be spatially referenced to provide valuable information to those making management decisions in the health sector. When it comes to disease outbreaks or epidemics, Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used to provide excellent insight by analyzing epidemiological data, and displaying trends and relationships between different factors.
GIS can be used to produce visual representations, which are very effective in telling stories and conveying information. GIS is all about place and space and time if we should add the remote sensing aspect to it, therefore we can use this to investigate the what, where, and why of disease outbreaks, we can answer questions like,
- Where is this disease found?
- How does the disease relate to the environment around it?
- Where are disease rates higher or lower?
- How far is it to the nearest healthcare facility to seek treatment?
It has applications for understanding both chronic disease and infectious disease occurrence and dynamics.
Understanding the factors that lead to infectious disease spread is essential to preventing the spread and therefore managing an outbreak. If used in real-time during the early stages of an epidemic, GIS can be used to monitor and enhance understanding of the transmission dynamics of an infectious agent. This then forms the basis for designing, implementing, and evaluating intervention strategies.
The historical record that showed the first use of a map for disease outbreak is that of the Broad Street cholera outbreak in London, 1854. The thinking at the time was that cholera was spread via airborne particles. However, John Snow mapped the cases and was able to find a common link, a water pump on Broad Street. The pump was removed from use, cases of cholera then abated and thus the benefits of mapping infectious disease epidemics were understood.
The measles virus is a highly contagious virus and cases worldwide have been decreasing year by year, due to effective vaccination campaigns. The disease was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but since then there have been pockets of infection arising. In 2000, GIS analysis of rapidly growing measles outbreaks was linked to pockets of unvaccinated children.
The emergence of a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 was at the time, the first major new disease outbreak of the 21st century, and much like Covid-19, its spread was facilitated by global air travel. Online maps played a crucial part in monitoring and responding to spread quickly, however deeper analysis showed that SARS was highly localized and therefore only moderately transmissible. In turn, contact tracing and quarantine systems could be formed around this information.
In 2020 when the world became aware of a rapidly spreading coronavirus, the geospatial community banded together rapidly to apply their skills to pandemic data management. Applications and maps began to pop up helping citizens and authorities to understand where the vulnerable communities are, infection rates in communities, or hospital capacity. In Singapore, the National Parks Board even developed an app to help residents identify the least crowded parks to visit and maintain social distance.
Various organizations have developed these real-time dashboards tracking case numbers, deaths, and other important statistics, however, there has been limited geospatial analysis of the Covid pandemic
References:
- https://www.geospatialworld.net/article/gis-a-tool-for-monitoring-and-management-of-epidemics/
- https://www.cdc.gov/gis/index.html/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690826/
- https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcnews/cdc-aims-at-reducing-annual-heart-disease-and-stroke-related-deaths-in-the-us/
- https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/something-in-the-water-the-mythology-of-snows-map-of-cholera/
- https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/blog/reveal-mapping-and-tracking-the-spread-of-deadly-diseases/
- https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/feaf86dac1584a84978a5e49d62266ca
- https://mapscaping.com/gis-to-manage-and-monitor-disease/
- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
How Geospatial Data And Technologies Can Help In Disease Prevention And Control
