NASA’s Satellite Data Help Save Lives

For the first time, measurements from our Earth-observing satellites

are being used to help combat a potential outbreak of life-threatening cholera.

Humanitarian teams in Yemen are targeting areas identified by a NASA-supported

project that precisely forecasts high-risk regions based on environmental

conditions observed from space.

Cholera is caused by consuming food or water contaminated with a

bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.

The disease affects millions of people every year and can be

deadly. It remains a major threat to global health, especially in developing

countries, such as Yemen, where access to clean water is limited.

To calculate the likelihood of an outbreak, scientists run a

computer model that takes satellite

observations of things like rain and temperatures and combines them with

information on local sanitation and clean water infrastructure. In 2017,

the model achieved 92 percent

accuracy in predicting the regions where cholera was most likely to occur and

spread in Yemen. An outbreak that year in Yemen was the world’s worst, with

more than 1.1 million suspected cases and more than 2,300 deaths, according to

the World Health Organization.

International humanitarian organizations took notice. In January 2018, Fergus McBean,

a humanitarian adviser with

the U.K.’s Department for International Development, read about the NASA-funded

team’s 2017 results and contacted them with an ambitious challenge: to create

and implement a cholera forecasting system for Yemen, in only four months.

“It was a race against the start of rainy season,” McBean

said.

The U.S. researchers began working with U.K. Aid, the U.K.

Met Office, and UNICEF on the innovative approach to use the model to inform

cholera risk reduction in Yemen.

In March,

one month ahead of the rainy season, the U.K. international development office

began using the model’s forecasts. Early results show the science team’s model

predictions, coupled with Met Office weather forecasts, are helping UNICEF and

other aid groups target their response to where support is needed most.

Photo Credit: UNICEF

“By joining up international expertise with those working on

the ground, we have for the very first time used these sophisticated

predictions to help save lives and prevent needless suffering,” said Charlotte

Watts, chief scientist for United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

Read more: go.nasa.gov/2MxKyw4

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