Rebecca Huteson
Mapping could help stop Ebola’s
Spread
The spread of the
Ebola virus through West Africa isn’t thoroughly understood. Lars Skog has
researched the spread of past epidemics like the Black Death, the Russian Flu
Pandemic of 1889, the Asiatic Influenza of 1957 and the Swine Flu to better
understand how these diseases are spread. The spread of the Black Death in the
fourteenth century bears a resemblance to the spread of the Ebola virus because
they are both spread by small mammals. Based on our current level of knowledge
on the spread of Ebola, it is spread by fruit bats. Some rural West Africans
hunt them, and the disease can also be spread by their droppings.
Answering question
regarding preferable bat habitats, what kind of factors change these habitats
and how the virus affects the bats health will help to understand how the virus
is spread. Geoinformation technology is currently available for public health
response organizations, but collecting more data about these bats and the
spread of Ebola could help stop it.
Callahan, D. (2014). Mapping could
help stop Ebola’s Spread. Directions
Magazine. Retrieved from
This is very interesting, and the map is clear and informative. I wonder if they have any maps that georeference the location of bat droppings or concentrated areas of the disease. I feel like maps of those things could positively contribute to the efforts.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. I had absolutely no idea that the source of Ebola came from bats. This article is even more interesting when we know now that Dallas has registered their first Ebola case this week. Speaking of the map now, it could be interesting if they could show the ratio of sick people versus non-sick. It would give us a better idea of the Ebola propagation
ReplyDeleteThis is actually the worst Ebola outbreak to date. I think that including a dot map representing outbreaks would have been interesting so that we could see where hot spots for outbreaks are. Urban areas are a given due to the close contact, but I imagine there is also a correlation with rural areas that would rely heavily on bush meat like bats for food.
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