Spatial Epidemiology

I was always interested in disease.  And mapping.  I never knew there was an entire world wrapped up in the study of disease transmission, the meaning of vector analysis, the spread of disease over the surface of the earth.
I loved all those "bad disaster movies" like Outbreak, And The Band Played On, etc.  I read books, tracked disease outbreaks like Lassa Fever and Ebola.  When I worked in East Africa I got interested in malaria and yellow fever.  Just a hobby, really.

So somehow (in my infinite wisdom) I have ended up with EMS and Mapping/Data Analysis as co-careers.  I wish I could say it was the plan all along, but I guess our lives take us down the roads we choose.  It makes me think that I should be doing more important work with my skill set, somehow pushing the boundaries of spatial epidemiology. 

So the fact that Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is growing and moving is of no surprise.  As Jurassic Park taught us, there is no way to contain nature.  The bugs will eventually win, always.

Here are a couple of New York Times pieces about the current EVD crisis that I thought were interesting:

An overview of the outbreak, where we are:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html

We don't have it so bad.  Really.  A Liberian ambulance nurse is taking one for the team:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/world/africa/because-of-ebola-ambulance-work-in-liberia-is-a-busy-and-lonely-business.html?_r=0