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Prevention, Control, Protection In case of a disease outbreak, efficient use of geospatial data and mapping technologies can help in both containing and responding to crisis, and the past decade stands testimony to that. By Avneep Dhingra
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e it an interactive story map from Esri presenting a narrative of what is COVID-19, how the disease has spread and similar cases in the past, or the World Health Organization dashboard providing the latest updates on the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, reliance on mapping to track and depict such events has in a way reignited the discussion about the significance of geospatial technologies and data in disease prevention and control. However, this is not the first time when geospatial data and tools — especially the Geographic Information System (GIS) — have been used to check a disease outbreak and help governments and healthcare professionals in responding to an epidemic. Let us revisit some of the past cases.
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www.geospatialworld.net | Mar-Apr 2020
