The application of geospatial data to public health problems has expanded significantly with increased access to low-cost handheld global positioning system (GPS) receivers and free programs for geographic information systems analysis. In January 2010, we piloted the application of geospatial analysis to polio supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) in northern Nigeria. SIA teams carried GPS receivers to compare hand-drawn catchment area route maps with GPS tracks of actual vaccination teams. Team tracks overlaid on satellite imagery revealed that teams commonly missed swaths of contiguous households and indicated that geospatial data can improve microplanning and provide nearly real-time monitoring of team performance.
Keywords: GIS; geospatial analysis; immunization campaign; operations research; polio; program evaluation; supplemental immunization activity.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2014. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.