Use of GIS to Predict Vector Borne Disease Outbreaks

Our project is aimed at applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based tools for prediction of vector (insect) - borne disease outbreaks. Vector-borne diseases contribute significantly to the total disease burden in developing countries. The ability to predict outbreaks of vector-borne disease such as malaria will greatly enhance the efficacy of prevention efforts and will substantially reduce costs of prevention with efficient targeting of high-risk areas. Some developing countries such as India have certain strengths in Information technology (IT) and this project is one way of leveraging this strength by exploring potential applications of IT to pressing health problems. Current strategies for controlling infectious disease epidemics in the developing world depend largely on surveillance for new outbreaks followed by a rapid response to control the epidemic. The focus is on control (responding after the disease outbreak) and not on prevention since effective methods of identifying high-risk areas for targeting prevention efforts are not available. Improving the ability to identify high-risk areas will enable a focus on disease prevention.

Project mission:

Currently, we received limited support to conduct field-testing of malaria outbreak prediction model only at one site in India. We need to conduct field-testing in at least two other sites to develop a preliminary model of disease outbreak prediction. This funding will enable us to undertake these field tests. We plan to undertake research on issues involved in large-scale development and use of this model. We also plan to develop a preliminary understanding of using this model for other vector borne disease including Dengue, Yellow fever, and Chikungunya. We need financial support for conducting field studies, which include travel and lodging and a stipend to cover our time of preparatory research at Berkeley. We estimate that we would require approximately $10,000 for the above-mentioned activities.

Required resources:

1. Total project needs: $10,000

News:

• http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/09/06_bigideas.shtml