Spatial Video and EpiExplorer: A Field Strategy to Contextualize Enteric Disease Risk in Slum Environments

Area of Science:

• Environmental Epidemiology
• Spatial Analysis
• Public Health

Background:

• Informal settlements face significant disease risks from poor water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• Analyzing these risks at a fine spatial and temporal scale is analytically challenging.
• Traditional epidemiological methods struggle with the granularity needed for effective risk assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a novel analytical framework for fine-scale, spatio-temporal investigations of disease risk in informal settlements.
• To integrate water quality and environmental survey data with epidemiological information.
• To create a system for understanding sub-neighborhood risk patterns and potential early warning.

Main Methods:

• Utilized spatial video (SV) and bespoke spatial programming for data collection and analysis.
• Dynamically mined spatio-temporal epidemiological and environmental data.
• Conducted investigations in three informal settlements in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Main Results:

• Generated sub-neighborhood maps illustrating localized disease risk that fluctuates monthly.
• Identified epidemiological variations potentially misattributed to environmental or meteorological factors.
• Provided insights not readily achievable with traditional Geographic Information System (GIS) software.

Conclusions:

• Bespoke spatial programming and mobile methodologies offer a powerful framework for fine-scale epidemiological research in resource-limited settings.
• This approach enhances understanding of localized disease risk drivers.
• The findings challenge previous assumptions about disease etiology in informal settlements.