Vector-borne parasitic diseases: new trends in data collection and risk assessment

Climates and topography effectively restrict vector-borne infections to cer tain geographical areas, a clear illustration of how strongly the spatial d istributions of these diseases rely on environmental factors. This is hardl y a new revelation. but just a few years back, without the support of compu ter-assisted collection and handling of data, we were far less able to gras p the full picture. Fortunately climate data collection by Remote Sensing ( RS) by earth-observing satellites, a technology particularly well suited to pinpointing constraining endemic factors, has not only become affordable b ut also reached a high degree of sophistication. Meanwhile, geographical in formation systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) permit spatial information of great accuracy as well as digitalization of collected data on the spot enabling visualization of the data in relation to physical maps and facilitating comparisons of the results of longitudinal investigations . Adoption of these technologies at the national level promotes intersector al collaboration and promises improved planning and management in the contr ol of endemic diseases. Applications in areas such as malaria. onchocercias is, lymphatic filariasis, trypanosomiasis and schistosomiasis are briefly r eviewed. Reports in the fields of the former two diseases dominate the lite rature, while information is lagging with regard to the others. The need fo r a broadening of the GIS approach is emphasized with the aim of rejuvenati ng the dynamic aspect of epidemiological studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.