A brief review of spatial analysis concepts and tools used for mapping, containment and risk modelling of infectious diseases and other illnesses.
Fast response and decision making about containment, management, eradication and prevention of diseases, are increasingly important aspects of the work of public health officers and medical providers. Diseases and the agents causing them are spatially and temporally distributed, and effective countermeasures rely on methods that can timely locate the foci of infection, predict the distribution of illnesses and their causes, and evaluate the likelihood of epidemics. These methods require the use of large datasets from ecology, microbiology, health and environmental geography. Geodatabases integrating data from multiple sets of information are managed within the frame of geographic information systems (GIS). Many GIS software packages can be used with minimal training to query, map, analyse and interpret the data. In combination with other statistical or modelling software, predictive and spatio-temporal modelling can be carried out. This paper reviews some of the concepts and tools used in epidemiology and parasitology. The purpose of this review is to provide public health officers with the critical tools to decide about spatial analysis resources and the architecture for the prevention and surveillance systems best suited to their situations.
Faculty of Science, School of the Environment, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
Graziella
G
Caprarelli
Faculty of Health, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
Stephanie
S
Fletcher
D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D003264:Containment of Biohazards; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011634:Public Health; D012984:Software; D062206:Spatial Analysis