FLICKR, MOONLIGHTBULBIn the past week, researchers and journalists have scrambled to map the spread of H7N9 bird flu through China to identify its source and highlight at risk areas. Mapping is a common response to outbreaks, especially of new diseases, but some scientists believe it must become a more proactive part of disease control
Such mapping techniques have been used since the turn of the 19th century to track outbreaks in real time and understand their causes. In 1854, for example, John Snow penned a famous diagram of a cholera outbreak in London, pinpointing a water pump as the source.
Despite this long history, however, efforts to plot the locations of infectious diseases still tend to be reactive rather than proactive. And while local outbreaks are regularly and thoroughly mapped, the broader landscape is far murkier. According to a team of scientists led by Simon Hay from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, only 4 percent of important infectious diseases have been comprehensively mapped at a global scale. The rest are plagued by patchy data.
“We have ...
