[HOT] Why It’s So Hard to Tell If a Country Is Really Rid of Polio | WIRED

Laura O'Grady laura at lauraogrady.ca
Tue Aug 16 18:05:56 UTC 2016


Some interesting snippets from the article [1]:

In reference to Nigeria:

"The country (and, by extension, Africa) was just a year away from being declared polio-free. Now the clock resets, and Africa’s next chance of being declared polio-free is in 2019, three years from now"

And in general:

"The waiting period depends a lot on the quality of surveillance—the less sensitive your system is, the longer you’d have to wait to be sure the disease is gone. But the solution isn’t waiting longer—it’s collecting more accurate data. “We need really good surveillance in the endgame,” says Thompson. “We can’t back off until we know it’s gone.”"

In this context Thompson means epidemiological data. But mapping data is equally as important as it aids in the collection of health data. 

It would help raise awareness of this important point if either the reporters or clinicians (or both) who are interviewed for these articles would reference the value of geospatial information.

Laura

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Laura O'Grady
laura at lauraogrady.ca

[1] http://www.wired.com/2016/08/takes-long-really-get-rid-polio/
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