PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Using cell phone data to curb the spread of malaria

Study in Kenya finds measuring movement of people could lead to more effective ways to control spread of disease

2012-10-12
(Press-News.org) Boston, MA -- New research that combines cell phone data from 15 million people in Kenya with detailed information on the regional incidence of malaria has revealed, on the largest scale so far, how human travel patterns contribute to the disease's spread. The findings from researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and seven other institutions indicate that malaria, in large part, emanates from Kenya's Lake Victoria region and spreads east, chiefly toward the capital, Nairobi.

The study appears in the October 12, 2012 issue of the journal Science.

"This is the first time that such a massive amount of cell phone data—from millions of individuals over the course of a year—has been used, together with detailed infectious disease data, to measure human mobility and understand how a disease is spreading," said senior author Caroline Buckee, HSPH assistant professor of epidemiology.

Malaria kills about 1 million people each year—90% are children under age 5 in sub-Saharan Africa—and threatens over 3 billion globally.

To estimate malaria's potential spread, it's important to factor in not only information about the location of the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite, but also the behavior of the people who might be infected, said Buckee. Since many infected people have no symptoms, they can unintentionally carry the parasite during their travels and infect hundreds of others.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, the researchers mapped every call or text made by each of 14,816,521 Kenyan mobile phone subscribers to one of 11,920 cell towers located in 692 different settlements. Every time an individual left his or her primary settlement, the destination and duration of each journey was calculated. Then, using a 2009 malaria prevalence map provided by co-authors at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the Malaria Atlas Project to estimate the disease's prevalence in each location being studied, they inferred each resident's probability of being infected and the daily probability that visitors to particular areas would become infected.

They found that a surprisingly large fraction of "imported" infections—that is, infections that are carried by people moving from one place to another—wind up in Nairobi, with infected residents returning there after journeys to spots such as Lake Victoria or the coast.

By using disease prevalence data, added Buckee, researchers can estimate the probability that each person is carrying malaria parasites and build a map of parasite movements between "source" areas (areas that mostly emit disease) and "sink" areas (areas that mostly receive disease).

This kind of research—coupling "big data" from mobile phones with detailed malaria incidence information—will be an important tool for understanding the spread of the disease, said Buckee. The information available from these new types of analyses holds promise for helping public health officials decide where and how to control imported cases of malaria. For instance, Buckee said, officials could send text message warnings to the phones of people traveling to high-risk areas, suggesting that they use a bednet.

INFORMATION:

First author of the paper is Amy Wesolowski, a Carnegie-Mellon doctoral student. Buckee and Nathan Eagle, adjunct assistant professor in the HSPH Department of Epidemiology, also a co-author on the paper, are serving as Wesolowski's PhD advisers.

Support for this study was provided by the NIH Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study program, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program (#0750271), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust.

"Quantifying the impact of human mobility on malaria," Amy Wesolowski, Nathan Eagle, Andrew J. Tatem, David L. Smith, Abdisalan M. Noor, Robert W. Snow, Caroline O. Buckee, Science, October 12, 2012

Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights. For more information on the school visit www.hsph.harvard.edu.
HSPH on Twitter: http://twitter.com/HarvardHSPH
HSPH on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/harvardpublichealth
HSPH on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardPublicHealth
HSPH home page: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New web-based model for sharing research datasets could have huge benefits

2012-10-12
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A group of researchers have proposed creating a new web-based data network to help researchers and policymakers worldwide turn existing knowledge into real-world applications and technologies and improve science and innovation policy. Researchers around the world have created datasets that, if interlinked with other datasets and made more broadly available could provide the needed foundation for policy and decision makers. But these datasets are spread across countries, scientific disciplines and data providers, and appear in a variety of inconsistent ...

Unusual genetic structure confers major disease resistance trait in soybean

2012-10-12
MADISON — Scientists have identified three neighboring genes that make soybeans resistant to the most damaging disease of soybean. The genes exist side-by-side on a stretch of chromosome, but only give resistance when that stretch is duplicated several times in the plant. "Soybean cyst nematode is the most important disease of soybean, according to yield loss, worldwide, year after year," says senior author Andrew Bent, professor of plant pathology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. "As we try to feed a world that is going from 6 billion toward 9 billion people, soybean ...

1 CVD death in China every 10 seconds

2012-10-12
Sophia Antipolis, 12 October 2012: Urgent actions including smoking bans in public places, salt restrictions and improved blood pressure control are needed to fight rising cardiovascular disease in China. Half of male physicians in China smoke and they can lead the way to healthy lifestyles by kicking the habit. Cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death in China and causes more than 40% of all deaths. "Every year three million Chinese people die from cardiovascular disease and every 10 seconds there is one death from CVD in China," said Professor Dayi Hu, chief ...

University of Washington researchers focus on quorum sensing to better understand bacteria

2012-10-12
The relatively new field in microbiology that focuses on quorum sensing has been making strides in understanding how bacteria communicate and cooperate. Quorum sensing describes the bacterial communication between cells that allows them to recognize and react to the size of their surrounding cell population. While a cell's output of extracellular products, or "public goods," is dependent on the size of its surrounding population, scientists have discovered that quorum sensing, a type of bacterial communication, controls when cells release these public goods into their environments. ...

Researchers ID unique geological 'sombrero' uplift in South America

2012-10-12
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have used 20 years of satellite data to reveal a geological oddity unlike any seen on Earth. At the border of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile sits the Altiplano-Puna plateau in the central Andes region, home to the largest active magma body in Earth's continental crust and known for a long history of massive volcanic eruptions. A study led by Yuri Fialko of Scripps and Jill Pearse of the Alberta Geological Survey has revealed that magma is forming a big blob in the middle of the crust, pushing up the earth's ...

In the bacterial world of your mouth, nurture wins out over nature

2012-10-12
October 12, 2012 – The human mouth is home to a teeming community of microbes, yet still relatively little is known about what determines the specific types of microorganisms that live there. Is it your genes that decide who lives in the microbial village, or is it your environment? In a study published online in Genome Research (www.genome.org), researchers have shown that environment plays a much larger role in determining oral microbiota than expected, a finding that sheds new light on a major factor in oral health. Our oral microbiome begins to take shape as soon ...

Meteorite delivers Martian secrets to University of Alberta researcher

2012-10-12
(Edmonton) A meteorite that landed in the Moroccan desert 14 months ago is providing more information about Mars, the planet where it originated. University of Alberta researcher Chris Herd helped in the study of the Tissint meteorite, in which traces of Mars' unique atmosphere are trapped. "Our team matched traces of gases found inside the Tissint meteorite with samples of Mars' atmosphere collected in 1976 by Viking, NASA's Mars lander mission," said Herd. Herd explained that 600 million years ago the meteorite started out as a fairly typical volcanic rock on the surface ...

Surprising solution to fly eye mystery

2012-10-12
Fly eyes have the fastest visual responses in the animal kingdom, but how they achieve this has long been an enigma. A new study shows that their rapid vision may be a result of their photoreceptors - specialised cells found in the retina - physically contracting in response to light. The mechanical force then generates electrical responses that are sent to the brain much faster than, for example, in our own eyes, where responses are generated using traditional chemical messengers. The study was published today, 12 October, in the journal Science. It had been thought ...

Weizmann Institute Scientists observe quantum effects in cold chemistry

Weizmann Institute Scientists observe quantum effects in cold chemistry
2012-10-12
At very low temperatures, close to absolute zero, chemical reactions may proceed at a much higher rate than classical chemistry says they should – because in this extreme chill, quantum effects enter the picture. A Weizmann Institute team has now confirmed this experimentally; their results would not only provide insight into processes in the intriguing quantum world in which particles act as waves, it might explain how chemical reactions occur in the vast frigid regions of interstellar space. Long-standing predictions are that quantum effects should allow the formation ...

Developmental biologist proposes new theory of early animal evolution

2012-10-12
VALHALLA, October 11, 2012—A New York Medical College developmental biologist whose life's work has supported the theory of evolution has developed a concept that dramatically alters one of its basic assumptions—that survival is based on a change's functional advantage if it is to persist. Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D., professor of cell biology and anatomy, offers an alternative model in proposing that the origination of the structural motifs of animal form were actually predictable and relatively sudden, with abrupt morphological transformations favored during the early period ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

Unintentional drug overdoses take a toll across the U.S. unequally, study finds

A step toward plant-based gelatin

ECMWF unveils groundbreaking ML tool for enhanced fire prediction

The food and fuel that farms itself

Patient- and Community-Level Characteristics Associated With RSV Vaccination

[Press-News.org] Using cell phone data to curb the spread of malaria
Study in Kenya finds measuring movement of people could lead to more effective ways to control spread of disease