Contours of Risk: Spatializing Human Behaviors to Understand Disease Dynamics in Changing Landscapes

Abstract

We echo viewpoints presented in recent publications from EcoHealth and other journals arguing for the need to understand linkages between human health, disease ecology, and landscape change. We underscore the importance of incorporating spatialities of human behaviors and perceptions in such analyses to further understandings of socio-ecological interactions mediating human health. We use Buruli ulcer, an emerging necrotizing skin infection and serious health concern in central Ghana, to illustrate our argument.

Chemistry of natural waters and its relation to Buruli ulcer in Ghana

“…Measurements of water chemistry in the wake of extreme rainfall events could also be useful; extreme rainfall and associated flooding may increase the number and size of water bodies that could harbor M. ulcerans. Moreover, geospatial approaches for understanding multi-scalar variability in environmental niches of the bacteria may be critical for understanding the emergence of the disease (Richardson et al, 2013;Hausermann et al, 2012). However, by identifying local-scale variability in water chemistry in BU areas, we see this work is an important step toward identifying the environmental niche of M. ulcerans.…”

“…As justified by Hausermann et al (2012), we used an interdisciplinary perspective to include community perspectives of disease risk in selecting the perceived hot spots. "Buruli ulcer hot spots" were identified by community members during participatory mapping exercises conducted in June 2010 (Tschakert, Penn State, unpublished data).…”

“…This disease is an enigma for scientists, as its mode of transmission is unknown. Treatment is well understood clinically, although in practice, it is expensive, long, and often poorly managed (WHO, 2012a,b;Hausermann et al, 2012). Recently, many scientists have turned their attention to determining the mode of transmission for BU in an effort to prevent this disease; this is the World Health Organization's top research priority (WHO, 2012a,b).…”

Strengths and Weaknesses of Global Positioning System (GPS) Data-Loggers and Semi-structured Interviews for Capturing Fine-scale Human Mobility: Findings from Iquitos, Peru

“…Knowledge of daily and routine individual human mobility patterns within urban settings are important for urban planning [1]–[3], developing transportation models [3], promoting healthy lifestyles [4], and understanding infectious disease dynamics [5]–[13]. Measuring mobility at fine spatial and temporal scales through classic data collection methods (e.g., interviews, diaries, direct observations) presents significant challenges, such as marked heterogeneities in the ability of individuals to recall the locations they visit, changes in people's lives that affect their daily mobility (e.g., new partners, change of jobs, school vacation) as well as privacy issues [11], [14].…”

“…These challenges can be exacerbated in resource-poor settings [6], [7], [10], [15], [16], such as our study site in Iquitos, Peru, due to the lack of complete and updated address maps (affecting geo-coding of self-reported addresses) and limitations in spatial literacy of interviewed individuals [11]. There is an urgent need to develop and validate easily deployable and culturally-sensitive tools that characterize a person's routine mobility in order to link such information to health outcomes [6], [10], [13], [17], [18]. This is of particular relevance for understanding infectious disease dynamics, given the dominant role mobility has in driving infectious contacts and thus pathogen transmission, emergence, persistence and propagation [5], [6], [8]–[13], [18]–[22].…”