A new study by researchers at the Big Data Institute shows that how close people live to unsafe water sources strongly predicts their exposure to schistosomiasis, a debilitating waterborne parasitic disease, helping to explain patterns of infection and re-infection. The study is published in Nature Health.
Globally, over 400 million people rely on unsafe water in lakes, rivers, and swamps for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and livelihoods, putting them at risk of waterborne diseases like schistosomiasis.
The study, carried out in collaboration with the Division of Vector Born Diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, aimed to address this. Working in three rural districts of Uganda, the researchers equipped 452 children and adults drawn from the SchistoTrack study with wearable GPS loggers for 10 days. Data were collected at two-minute intervals resulting in over 1 million GPS locations. This allowed researchers to study water contact patterns in great detail.
Dr Melissa Iacovidou from the Big Data Institute at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, who is one of the study’s co-authors, said ‘The GPS data collected in the study were vital for understanding patterns of human behaviour in these areas and for improving assumptions in individual-based transmission models. Further developing such models can help guide focal interventions in the future.’
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Population Health website.