Scientists tracking snails from space to combat spread of parasitic disease in Africa

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TRIPOLI: Scientists are tracking snails from space in a bid to combat the spread of parasitic disease in Africa.
The satellite information is being used to predict where infections are likely to occur, enabling health agencies to better target their resources.
It is one example of the growing influence of space-borne data in new healthcare applications.
The development was reported at a meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.
It is not possible, of course, to see individual snails from orbit, but specialists will have a very good idea of where these creatures prefer to be and the conditions under which they will thrive.
And so it is with the watersnails that carry the larvae of the worms that spread schistosomiasis through human populations in Africa. The disease is not usually a killer, but it is debilitating.
In Kenya, scientists are making satellite maps of all the watercourses where these snail carriers are likely to reside, and plotting how they will move across the landscape. This information is then compared with satellite data on where people live on that landscape.
The combination of the two maps shows the highest risk locations – the places health programmes should be concentrated.
Similar work is being done with disease-spreading insects, such as mosquitoes.