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NASA Satellites to Predict Disease Outbreaks
coondoggie writes "NASA and its Applied Sciences Program will be using 14 satellites to watch the Earth's environment and help predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks around the world. Through orbiting satellites, data is collected daily to monitor environmental changes. That information is then passed on to agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense who then apply the data to predict and track disease outbreaks and assist in making public health policy decisions. The use of remote sensing technology helps scientists predict the outbreak of some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola, West Nile virus and Rift Valley Fever."
What do these things have in common? Africa.
What's the deal with all these weird diseases originating in that dark continent? Why do we not get such terrible diseases from the jungles of South America, for instance?
Because the DOD has a large number of people around the world, and they want to be able to be prepared for them, since military bases and camps can be hotbeds for disease.
Often the ideal conditions for an outbreak of Malaria, West Nile, etc. are tied to climate factors such as rainfall and temperature. This is because of the nature of the transmission vectors of these diseases, namely insects, obviously the mosquito, particularly the Anopheles gambiae which carries the more deadly form of the malaria parasite. I've used interpolated averaged (read: doubly inaccurate) climate information (rainfall, temperature) to rather accurately map the areas where malarial outbreaks would occur in Eritrea (a country in NE Africa, next to Ethiopia). Creating a model utilizing real-time climate statistics aided by local reporting could seriously assist in the fight against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, I only hope the information is put in the hands of the right people.
Since the US needs to control the world to keep it safe for corporations, we have military bases all over the world to protect 'US Interests'... Also, disease outbreaks are convenient for 'softening up' areas that are showing resistance to US corporate interests. The shock of a disease outbreak can provide an opening for US 'assistance' in opening markets. We can start with humanitarian assistance, food and medicine (US brand only), then move to other goods and services... but only if the country is willing to open their markets and privatize their 'inefficient' public resources.