Towards an atlas of human helminth infection in sub-Saharan Africa: The use of geographical information systems (GIS)

The value of a geographical perspective to infectious disease epidemiology and control has long been recognized. However, the labour required to produce maps, and keep them up to date, has inhibited the development of this area, and very little is currently known about the spatial distribution of parasitic infections other than malaria, trypanosomiasis and onchocerciasis. A recent initiative by an international group of collaborators is attempting to redress the absence of detailed spatial information on the major helminth infections of humans. In this article, Simon Brooker and colleagues describe progress made by this initiative in mapping helminth infections in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the value as well as the limitations of this empirical mapping approach.