Weather maps and search engine queries are the latest tools in the fight against global health threats.

In 2003 a new, highly contagious form of pneumonia began to spread throughout China.  Over the course of nine months over 8,000 cases of “severe acute respiratory syndrome” or SARS were reported in more than 25 countries.  As the disease spread, so did the public panic. Although fewer than 1,000 SARS deaths were reported worldwide, the economic and psychological toll was great. Countries closed their borders and halted trade, and the global economic impact ran into the billions.

Experts warn that such pandemics are on the rise, and as the world becomes more ”hot, flat and crowded“ the global cost of communicable diseases like SARS will also increase. Which makes predicting where the next pandemic will come from all that more urgent.

A step in the right direction occured aarlier this year when researchers released a first-ever map of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) that identifies the world’s “hotspots” for diseases such as SARS, avian flu, Ebola and the West Nile virus. The map shows that most of the emerging pathogens are zoonoses (animal pathogens that infect humans) and that the main “hotspots” are located in developing countries where changes in population density and wildlife diversity have shifted (specifically South Asia and Southeast Asia).  Researchers say that together with “smart surveillance” and monitoring systems the map offers a prediction of where the next new disease could emerge.

 Hmmm… Surveillance.  Monitoring.  Aggregating large amounts of data.  Sounds like a job for the world’s favorite search engine.  Indeed, last week Google.org announced a new tool to predict flu outbreaks in the U.S.  The aptly-named Google Flu Trends analyzes search patterns (i.e., users searching for keywords such as “flu symptoms” or “chest congestion”) to create a map of possible flu outbreaks several weeks ahead of public health agencies such as Center for Disease Control (CDC).  While traditional flu surveillance systems (such as doctors reporting to the CDC) take weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be generated automatically, providing daily estimates and an early-warning system for potential outbreaks.  Google Flu Trends is part of an on-going series of “digital detection” public health projects, including Health Map, a global disease alert map (above image).

And finally, an actual use for the weather channel:  researchers are using satellites to predict cholera outbreaks in the developing world. This BBC article reports on research by global infectious diseases expert Dr. Rita Colwell, who discovered that cholera outbreaks follow seasonal increases in sea temperature. It turns out that cholera bacteria live in the sea and are associated with plankton blooms which bring the pathogen into the drinking water supply.  Dr. Colwell’s research found that plankton has a seasonality - spring and fall - and that the development of cholera in developing countries follows the same pattern.  By measuring sea surface temperatures using satellite imagery, researchers can predict when the plankton will bloom and thus provide an early warning system for India and Bangladesh, where cholera epidemics occur regularly.  Eventually, researchers hope to be able to predict cholera outbreaks weeks or even months before they occur by looking out to the sea.

Which is more iconic New York: the Empire State Building or a band of dirty pigeons?  While visitors to the Big Apple may or may not experience the city through its architectural landmarks, it’s a pretty sure bet that any trek through Mnahattan will involve an encounter with a pigeon or two (or fifty).  Abecedarium: NYC capitalizes on the city’s eccentricities by creating a map that reflects on the history, geography, and culture of New York City through 26 words. Make that 26 unusual words. Words like Georgic (”a poem to agriculture”), Kermis (”a festival”) and Welkin (”the vault of heaven, the sky”).  Each word is mapped to a location in New York and connects to an original video, picture and/or audio track that both describes the word (helpful, in case you’re lost on what “umbel” means) and shows it relationship to the cityscape.

The result is a multimedia interpretation of the city as seen through the eyes of a dictionary. For instance, Holus Bolus (”all at once”) includes a video that seems to feature a day in the life of a flock of NYC pigeons while Audile (”one who thinks in sounds rather than visual images”) reveals a sound tour of the city, a sort of urban symphony of honking cars and street rappers.

While the content on the main site is curated by the project’s directors, users can contribute their own interpretations and experiences of the words on the site’s blog.  The contributions range from the quotidian to the quintessential: posts related to Georgic include a video of the greener side of the east village and an ode to the Park Slope food co-op.