0:00
In this lecture, Uriel
Kitron and Gonzalo Vasquez-Prokopec
from the department of Environmental
Studies at Emory University
will describe a set of
spatial tools for analysis
of vector-borne diseases.
This will include geographic
information systems--
or GIS-- remote sensing,
and spatial analysis.
0:23
When we talk about spatial
analysis for vector-borne diseases,
there are a variety of
factors we need to consider.
Whether we talk about spatial
analysis for surveillance
and control or for
research about transmission
of vector-borne diseases.
There are a variety of
tools we have to consider,
ranging from global
positioning systems
through geographic
information system
and remote sensing
to analytical tools
with a statistical or modeling.
When we talk about
spatial statistics,
there is a whole range of tools
developed by different disciplines
that have been applied
to spatial data.
Approaches such as landscape
ecology and metapopulation biology
provide a theoretical
framework of spatial analysis
of vector-borne diseases.
We always have to be aware of
issues in scale and resolution
that determine the tools we are
using, the questions we can ask,
and the type of answer that we get.
Risk maps have been one of the
most visible outcomes of applying
spacial analysis for
vector-borne diseases.
We will end this presentation
by discussing opportunities
and limitation of spatial
analysis of vector-borne diseases.
1:36
From the research
point of view, the type
of questions we can utilize
spatial analysis for
include questions
about the determinants
of transmission and
risk of transmission.
What spatial determinants are
responsible for transmission
to occur in a given location
and at a given time?
We can talk about the associations
of risk factors with disease
and how the spatial
associations interact
with the temporal processes.
Finally, with many of the new
and emerging diseases being
vector-borne diseases,
often zoonosis,
we can use spatial
tools to ask questions
and to try and answer them
about the origins of disease
and risk for establishment
of new diseases.
