Infectious disease transmission—it’s who you know and where you go

Public health researchers have long used social networks to understand the spread of infectious diseases, but those social networks often have gaps. A team of researchers recently showed that spatial analysis can help fill in those gaps, leading to a more complete picture of disease transmission and ways to mediate the risk, particularly for those who are most vulnerable. Justine Blanford, a researcher in Penn State’s John A. Dutton e-Education Institute and GeoVISTA Center, and Jay Logan, a 2014 graduate of World Campus’ Master of Geographic Information Systems program, collaborated with Ann Jolly, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, to track the social connections and geographic locations of risky behavior among injection drug users, street youth, men who have sex with men, and homeless people in Winnipeg, Canada. Their findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE. “Given the connectedness of the...