When physical distancing becomes impossible
Researchers from ETH NADEL and Swiss TPH have created a risk map showing which regions in Africa may see a faster spread of infectious diseases due to lacking infrastructure.
The coronavirus pandemic has made people around the globe realise how important individual behaviour is for mitigating the spread of diseases. But is it possible to comply with distancing rules everywhere in the world? Isabel Günther, Kenneth Harttgen and researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and the University of Innsbruck tackled this question in an interdisciplinary research project using the example of Africa. Their analysis, published in Nature Communications, shows that households often lack the most basic infrastructure needed to comply with distancing rules (eg. shared sanitation and housing). However, huge differences were found among the 34 countries examined, and even within a single country, the situation can vary greatly from region to region. A high-resolution risk map provides insights into which areas of a country are least capable of complying with distancing and thus experience a faster spread of diseases. The results can help governments target their investments in certain regions through activities like information and vaccination campaigns or expanding infrastructure, thus helping with pandemic response and prevention.
Reference
Isabel Günther, Kenneth Harttgen, Johannes Seiler and Jürg Utzinger. An index of access to essential infrastructure to identify where physical distancing is impossible, Nature Communications, published on 14 june 2022, external pageDOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30812-8