Meeting report

Spatial epidemiology in zoonotic parasitic diseases: insights gained at the 1^st International Symposium on Geospatial Health in Lijiang, China, 2007

Xiao-Nong Zhou¹ , Shan Lv^1,2 , Guo-Jing Yang³ , Thomas K Kristensen⁴ , N Robert Bergquist⁵ , Jürg Utzinger² and John B Malone⁶

¹  National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, PR China

²  Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland

³  Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Wuxi, PR China

⁴  DBL – Institute for Health Research and Development, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

⁵  Ingerod, Brastad, Sweden

⁶  Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Skip Bertman Drive, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

author email corresponding author email

Parasites & Vectors 2009, 2:10doi:10.1186/1756-3305-2-10

Published:	4 February 2009

Abstract

The 1^st International Symposium on Geospatial Health was convened in Lijiang, Yunnan province, People's Republic of China from 8 to 9 September, 2007. The objective was to review progress made with the application of spatial techniques on zoonotic parasitic diseases, particularly in Southeast Asia. The symposium featured 71 presentations covering soil-transmitted and water-borne helminth infections, as well as arthropod-borne diseases such as leishmaniasis, malaria and lymphatic filariasis. The work made public at this occasion is briefly summarized here to highlight the advances made and to put forth research priorities in this area. Approaches such as geographical information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS) and remote sensing (RS), including spatial statistics, web-based GIS and map visualization of field investigations, figured prominently in the presentation.