The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing a new technology for forecasting malaria outbreaks in Myanmar from space.
The technique is being developed in response to the emergence of drug-resistant malaria strains in Southeast Asia that hinders initiatives to completely exterminate the deadly disease worldwide. This follows a report from The Lancet last week that claimed malaria can be eradicated globally within a generation, by 2050.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria cases and deaths fell by over 90 percent in Myanmar between 2010 and 2017 due to improved rural health services and wider use of treated bednets. However, the country still has the highest number of cases in the Mekong region as several drug-resistant strains are emerging across Southeast Asia.
Scientist Tatiana Loboda discussed how NASA is deploying "cutting edge" spatial technology to tackle malaria outbreaks in Myanmar before they happen. This is aimed at countering the possibility of these drug-resistant strains migrating to Africa where more than 90 percent of cases globally occur.
Loboda, a professor at Maryland University, claimed "A lot of people use a little spatial modelling... but not to the same depth and capabilities as we're doing here." The satellites will provide meteorological data, such land surface temperatures, atmospheric water content and information about land cover, including forest, shrubland, settlements or water, and these will be integrated with socio-economic data gathered by researchers in the field.
The team from Maryland University is working closely with local government and military scientists but Loboda pointed out that it can be challenging because the country's armed forces keep their operations covert and they lack access to Myanmar's areas of conflict. She said "I'm used to working with big data. I want to blanket the whole country with random locations... but I can't."
The state of US-Myanmar relations also bring complication to the research team's relationship with the military. Lobo added "Sometimes I can go, sometimes I can't."
