December 2018^ DISCOVER^63RIGHT: COURTESY OF SIMON JOHNSON. LAPTOP INSET: DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS. LAPTOP: PETER KOTOFF/SHUTTERSTOCK
ere’s a Map for at
Doctors Without Borders (also known by the French name Médecins Sans
Frontières, or MSF) and the British Red Cross (BRC) are collaborating to tackle
the spread of disease in real time.
Their efforts began with the Missing Maps Project, a 2014 initiative carried
out by MSF, BRC, the American Red Cross and the U.S.-based
non-proit Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. The project
trained citizen volunteers to digitally trace the buildings and
roads that appear in satellite images, creating maps. They
focused on regions that are most vulnerable to crises like
disease outbreaks and natural disasters, but aren’t typically
mapped in detail — which can be a problem for aid workers
responding to a disaster.
MSF and BRC applied this technique in Lubumbashi, a city
in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They mapped buildings
and road networks, as well as details like neighborhood limits,
identifying key areas where crisis victims might arrive. These
maps provided a basis on which to build an outbreak tracking
system: The team created software that
would combine the maps with patient
details collected by doctors, making it
easier to check for patterns or signs of
an outbreak.
Doctors and nurses enter patient
information, including age, length of stay
and admission date, into the software,
and an animated map shows where
patients are coming from and when. The
tool “will show a map of the city and the
administration areas, and will show colors
in different intensity where the outbreak
is occurring the highest,” says Simon
Johnson, a BRC technical leader who
helped develop the software. “The idea is
you can then start preventative exercises,
rather than just treatment of patients
coming in.”^ DMallory Locklear is a freelance science writer
based in New York.Pros
The technology is open source and
can be developed rapidly, allowing
new groups to use and customize it.Cons
The output is only as good as the
effort users put into it. If people
enter data inaccurately, the
mapping will be inaccurate as well.
Users must be properly trained.UP NEXT
The team is working to bring this
dashboard to more locations,
according to former project leader
Idriss Ait-Bouziad’s presentation
of the work at an MSF conference
last year.Pros
Using these analyses to
pinpoint potential outbreak
hot spots allows health
care organizations and
governments to direct
resources to that area.
Researchers and physicians
then can focus on that
region and directly test for
the emergence of diseases
from both wildlife and
humans, allowing for a
better chance at prevention
and containment.Cons
Relying on a mathematical
model requires researchers
to make assumptions. For
example, the model may
show that deforested
areas are hot spots for
new outbreaks. But it
doesn’t explain the complex
reasons that make up the
whole picture of why this
occurs. So while the map is
limited in what it can tell
researchers, it does point
researchers to key places
to seek underlying causes.UP NEXT
Emerging disease leaders
from around the world,
including those from
EcoHealth Alliance, have
come together to form
the Global Virome Project.
The goal is to identify all
currently unknown viruses
that could emerge in the
future — an estimated
1.6 million. By knowing
which viruses pose a
threat to humans and
which animals carry them,
EcoHealth and similar
groups will be even better
prepared to predict where
the next pandemic may
spring up. The project is
expected to take 10 years
and cost up to $5 billion.The British Red
Cross and Doctors
Without Borders
teamed up to
build this digital
dashboard. The
tool combines
local maps with
patient data, so
first responders can
track details that
could help them
spot an outbreak
in real time.Simon
Johnson
technical
leader, British
Red Cross