Inside Science interview with Tim Ford on satellite images and disease prediction appears on U.S. News and World Report online

91AV Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies Timothy Ford, Ph.D., was interviewed for a Feb. 24, 2011 story on the use of satellite images to predict the spread of human illness. The story also appeared on online and other media outlets. 

The power to predict disease outbreaks could be tremendously useful, Ford said. He has examined diseases whose spread might be predicted from satellite images. For malaria, public health officials could examine the amount and location of standing water where disease-carrying mosquitoes reproduce. For cholera, they could look at sea surface height and levels of the green pigment chlorophyll, because cholera bacteria spend much of their life attached to a floating animal that feeds on chlorophyll-filled plants.

Advance warning of an outbreak can be a matter of life and death. Ford's research shows that if health officials know that a cholera outbreak might be coming, they can encourage people to take simple precautions like filtering drinking water through a cloth, which can reduce mortality by 50 percent.

Ford's research on satellite imaging has been highlighted in the past in the Feb. 3, 2010 (JAMA), the September 2009 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's , and in the Aug. 24, 2009 .

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