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Track: Health Care Services
Fred Clark
Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the America
Box 570
8424 NW 56th Street
Miami, FL 33166
Telephone: 011-502-366-6106
Fax: 011-502-366-6127
E-mail: sggz@cidopd3.em.cdc.gov/oepa@guate.net
Robert Klein, Frank Richards, Michael Richards, Sergio Garcia
Application of a GIS in the Control of River Blindness
Defining Issue: To measure the magnitude and trend of a vector borne disease, onchocerciasis or River Blindness which can lead to blindness, poses a current challenge to a regional public health initiative in six Latin American countries. The disease is endemic in inaccessible regions of tropical America including the Amazon Basin. GIS Solution: The Regional Mapping Center seated at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, through support of the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA), has implemented a GIS to identify suspect communities, program the delivery of medication, measure performance of health workers, and determine impact of treatment. Methodology: The GIS began with digitizing available maps of the endemic zones, identifying suspect and endemic communities using buffer zones of known vector breeding sites, locating communities with the help of GPS units, producing maps to measure the performance of health brigades in the delivery of medication at the community level, and
measuring the endemicity and trend of the disease. This experience and technology have been transferred to the six countries where river blindness is endemic through the training of key personnel, field work, georeferencing of communities, and giving them digital maps, software, and equipment. Software: The GIS tool used at the Regional Mapping Center and the endemic countries is Atlas GIS Version 3.0 for Windows, databases are in Xbase format, and applications for gathering and keeping data are written in FoxPro and EpiInfo. The purpose of the paper is to show that GIS is a powerful tool for managing and modeling public health problems in developing countries where digital maps are almost nonexistent, access is difficult and funds are scare. The Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas is a non-for-profit joint initiative of the Global 2000 River Blindness Program of the Carter Center, the Pan American Health Organization and Ministries of Health of the six countries where onchocerciasis is
endemic. With partial funding from a grant from the Inter American Development Bank, OEPA founded the Regional Mapping Center at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
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