Have you ever wondered how the world is mapped and tracked accurately? There are plenty of ways in which people used to measure the earth, how they mapped out each and every region and geographical nuance of the world. There were many challenges in the world that people had to face in order to accurately map out each and every location across the globe. Some spent their entire lives devoted to the cause, and they definitely helped with the process of it all. Their contributions did not go unnoticed, as they were always built upon and advanced over the years. Now, however, we have been able to map the world on such an advanced level that we no longer strive for a more accurate representation of the landscape. Now, however, we strive to map social and biological changes and shifts over time. One such new kind of mapping component is that of disease surveillance. Now that we have information about how many people live in each geographical location, there are many ways we can track health changes in the world.
For example, the website HealthMap is able to accurately track and locate different kinds of virus and disease outbreaks in the world. While this isn’t the traditional kind of mapping that most people think about, there certainly is a time and place for this in the world, as it will not only help people gain insight into disease awareness and how easily they can spread around in the world, but it is also good to use an an alarm or awareness tool for your local area. Not only is this information just available in your own area in the United States, but the information provided by HealthMap is also tracked on a global scale. There are multiple sources that the automated system that go into HealthMap, so you can rest assured that the data and information is all properly filtered and checked before presented to the public. All of these sources are then accurately noted and measured with other reports to generate a greater context. Once all of the pieces come together, HealthMap is able to determine what kind of diseases and infectious problems are occurring around the globe, how many outbreaks there are, and how soon they can occur in nearby areas.
With all of this information at our disposal, we can both be proactive and be knowledgeable about all of the diseases and other kinds of contagions, whether it is something as basic as flu surveillance, or something as serious as a malaria outbreak. Regardless of the disease, HealthMap is helping the global community understand and rethink their entire strategies for reporting on outbreaks as well as preparing themselves for any potential threats. Now that we have HealthMap at our disposal, either on our web browser or on our mobile devices, we can begin to appreciate and understand the effort that goes into mapping all of this information by using all of our available resources, and that our technology has progressed to such a point to help us as a world.
