What is it about?
Schistosomiasis is a deadly parasite found around the tropical world. It spends half of its life and people and half of its life in snails. The snails can only live where water flows. In this paper we use data from satellites to predict which rivers in Burkina Faso will be good homes for snails that carry the parasite.
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Why is it important?
This is an important step in understanding the ecology of the disease and the hydrology controlling it. With this kind of information, we will eventually be able to not just cure the disease but manage the ecosystem to prevent it.
Perspectives
I have a personal relationship with this disease since my time as a peace corps volunteer in Mauritania and I am very excited to contribute to cutting edge work addressing this problem. In my village in Mauritania, over 90% of the people were affected and related conditions were the leading cause of death. This work takes place in Burkina Faso, but I am confident that with time, the findings will help stop the disease all over the tropical world.
Dr. Natalie Claire Ceperley
Universite de Lausanne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Classification and prediction of river network ephemerality and its relevance for waterborne disease epidemiology, Advances in Water Resources, December 2017, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.10.003.
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