The use of remotely sensed environmental data in the study of malaria

Mapping and anticipating risk is a major issue in the fight against malaria, a disease causing an estimated one million deaths each year. Approximately half the world's population is at risk and it is of prime importance to evaluate the burden of malaria at the spatial as well as the temporal l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geospatial health 2011-05, Vol.5 (2), p.151-168
Main Authors: Machault, Vanessa, Vignolles, Cécile, Borchi, François, Vounatsou, Penelope, Pages, Frédéric, Briolant, Sébastien, Lacaux, Jean-Pierre, Rogier, Christophe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anopheles - growth & development
Anopheles - parasitology
Ecosystem
Geographic Information Systems
Humans
Insect Vectors - parasitology
Malaria
Malaria - epidemiology
Malaria - prevention & control
Malaria - transmission
malaria, urban malaria, indicators, environment, remote sensing, satellites, statistics
Models, Biological
Plasmodium - parasitology
Remote Sensing Technology
Risk Assessment - methods
Space-Time Clustering
Urban Health
Weather
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Summary:Mapping and anticipating risk is a major issue in the fight against malaria, a disease causing an estimated one million deaths each year. Approximately half the world's population is at risk and it is of prime importance to evaluate the burden of malaria at the spatial as well as the temporal level. The role of the environment with regard to the determinants of transmission and burden of the disease are described followed by a discussion of special issues such as urban malaria, human population mapping and the detection of changes at the temporal scale. Risk maps at appropriate scales can provide valuable information for targeted control and the present review discusses the essentials of principles, methods, advantages and limitations of remote sensing along with a presentation of ecological, meteorological and climatologic data which rule the distribution of malaria. The panel of commonly used analytic methods is examined and the methodological limitations are highlighted. A review of the literature details the increasing interest in the use of remotely sensed data in the study of malaria, by mapping or modeling several malariometric indices such as prevalence, morbidity and mortality, which are discussed with reference to vector breeding, vector density and entomological inoculation rate, estimates of which constitute the foundation for understanding endemicity and epidemics.
ISSN:1827-1987
1970-7096
DOI:10.4081/gh.2011.167