Scientists are using Google Earth to track down the sources of typhoid outbreaks in Nepal, the "typhoid fever capital of the world”:
Researchers say they have used GPS signalling and the latest DNA sequencing
techniques to plot the course of the disease — and have discovered the source of outbreaks is usually communal water spouts. … "Until now, it has been extremely difficult to study how organisms such as the typhoid-causing bacteria evolve and spread at a local level," said Stephen Baker, a scientist with Oxford University’s Vietnam unit. … Health workers visited typhoid patients’ homes and used GPS technology to capture the exact location, which was then plotted onto Google Earth, which maps the Earth by superimposing images from satellites and aerial photography. They took blood samples from hospitalised patients to isolate the organism — which mutates as it spreads — and allow analysis of its genetic make-up to identify where the disease had started.
Kathryn Holt, who worked on the paper, provides more detail.
(Image via Wellcome Trust)
The Dish 