New methods for tracking emergent infections: integrating pathogen genomic and geographic information system data

在过去50年中，新出现的传染病的增加构成了一个重大的全球公共卫生和经济问题，部分原因是全球化、土著居民流离失所和自然生境的改变。了解环境和生态与病原体出现和传播之间的相互作用，对于制定成功的干预和预测战略至关重要。这项研究将开发一套新的数学和计算方法，以确定哪些生态变量对病原体的出现和传播影响最大。有了这些知识，公共卫生官员、流行病学家和政府机构可以将这些发现转化为全球卫生的切实进展。然后，资源的分配可以针对与流行病直接有关的因素，如地理区域、环境条件或人类行为。

The rise of emerging infectious diseases during the past 50 years constitutes a major global public health and economic problem, and is due in part to globalization, displacement of indigenous populations and alterations in natural habitats. Understanding the interplay between environment and ecology with pathogen emergence and spread is of great importance to the development of successful intervention and predictive strategies. This research will develop a new set of mathematical and computational methods to determine which ecological variables have the greatest impact on the emergence and spread of pathogens. With this knowledge, public health officials, epidemiologists and governmental agencies can translate the findings into tangible advances to global health. Allocation of resources can then be directed to address factors directly involved in epidemics, such as geographic regions, environmental conditions, or human behaviours.