MyGeoHealth: GIS-based cholera transmission risk system in Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysian Geographical or Geospatial Health (MyGeoHealth) is a term used to describe innovative method for monitoring environmental risk factors on human health. There are possible spatial relationship between environment and cholera outbreaks in Tawau, Sabah due to the recent outbreaks are hard to predict. Cholera is a diarrhoeal disease caused by Vibrio cholerae (Vc), which occurs naturally in coastal phytoplankton (Chl-a) related with sea surface temperature (SST), shellfish and man. This study adapts the MyGeoHealth by emphasizing the potential of geographical information system (GIS), satellite remote sensing (RS) and global positioning system (GPS) to develop an introduced cholera transmission risk system in Tawau, Sabah. Spatio-temporal pattern and effect of SST, Chl-a, and cholera cases were determined using integrated geospatial technologies (GIS, RS and GPS), statistics and epidemiological approaches. Although the results of the effect were only statistically minimum correlation, the disease could outbreak at anywhere and anytime particularly at high population, unhygienic environment, close to the contaminated water supply, and during the hot or the wet season. These spatial characteristics of outbreak could be used as a cholera transmission risk indicator and an efficient control plan in Sabah as required in the MyGeoHealth.

Review of Geospatial Technology for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Use Case on COVID-19

“…The GIS provides dynamic maps to understand geographical distribution of diseases for analysis on frequency of cases, disease mapping, spatial cluster of diseases, disease association with environmental factors, network analysis, etc. With such a visualization and analytical capabilities, GIS technology is holding a widespread growth in public health (Ahmad et al 2011a, b;Booman et al 2000;Hanafi-Bojd et al 2012;Kolivras 2006;Martin et al 2002;Nykiforuk and Flaman 2011;Abdul Rasam et al 2011;Zhang et al 2008;Zhen et al 2010). The seamless integration of GIS with real-time infectious disease-related diverse datasets through web-based mapping leads to the development of geospatial dashboard, geospatial service framework, for infectious disease surveillance (Dent 2006;Gao et al 2008;Yun 2007).…”

The Invention of Geospatial Decision Support System for Malaysian Tuberculosis Surveillance Data Management

“…The motivation of this research is raised when related theories and scholarly experts convince that the GIS function has abilities to be applied in epidemiology and health studies as conducted in local studies (Rasam et al, 2018;Bazlan et al, 2014;Mohd Noor et al, 2011). Clarke et al (1996) and Abdul Rasam et al (2019) highlighted the GIS provides new and intensifying opportunities for epidemiology and believed that the technology prospect has already maintained a role for the public health expert in geography.…”

Mapping of cholera cases using satellite based recording systems to investigate the outbreak

“…After that GIS and GPS systems were incorporated in the mapping techniques. Detection of cholera transmission risk system in Sabah, Malaysia, using GIS, satellite remote sensing (RS) and GPS was an example of usage of advanced technology in cholera control 3 . GPS system was also useful for detection of drainage networks on cholera outbreaks in Lusaka, Zambia 4 .…”

“…Once a cholera outbreak has been confirmed, large-scale rapid preventive measures, including mass vaccinations, promotion of protective behaviours related to food and water handling, improvement of hygiene and sanitation and ensuring that a sufficient supply of materials for cholera treatment, such as oral rehydration salts and antibiotics, could be mobilized to minimize morbidity and mortality so that it cannot progress into an epidemic. Wider use of GPS and GIS system to tackle cholera outbreaks was reported from several countries in 21 st century 3 4 5 6 . This study further highlighted that GPS technology, combined with the Google Earth system was a useful tool to augment our understanding of preventive measure of the outbreak by providing the location of the households and an insight as to how people interact with the environment which in turn indicated contaminated bore wells as the main source of cholera outbreak.…”