To halt Ebola's spread, researchers race for data

DISCOVER MAGAZINE    By Kari Lydersen                                                                              Dec. 2, 2014
.....redicting the trajectory of Ebola rather than playing catching-up could do much to help prevent and contain the disease. Some experts have called for prioritizing mobile treatment units that can be quickly relocated to the spots most needed. Figuring out where Ebola is likely to strike next or finding emerging hot spots early on would be key to the placement of these treatment centers.

But such modeling requires data, and lots of it.  And for stressed healthcare workers on the ground and government and non-profit agencies scrambling to combat a raging epidemic, collecting and disseminating data is often not a high priority.

Alessandro Vespignani is one researcher trying to gather that information. Vespignani seeks population data at the most granular level possible, trying to determine numbers of people and types of dwellings within five by five mile boxes, for example. He uses local census numbers plus data from the LandScan program out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Worldpop, a UK-based project to map populations in Africa, Asia and Latin America with a focus on development and health.
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