Abstract
The prevalence of hepatitis C and other infections is increasing in urban areas of developing countries. Data on such diseases are often limited to facility-based information. However, even this is not available in a usable form to health care providers, health managers and policy makers. We present a simple technique for visually displaying facility based prevalence information on hepatitis C using basic geographic information system (GIS) techniques. We display the prevalence of hepatitis C for the city of Karachi, Pakistan for the first time. The distribution tends to indicate that there are areas of higher prevalence located in specific districts. There is also a trend of higher prevalence in less affluent urban areas. Such simple applications of mapping technology are useful for rapidly summarizing and displaying information in a contextually and spatially meaningful fashion, and its use should be encouraged for displaying health indicators in developing countries.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 413-415 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Public Health |
Volume | 114 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2000 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Geographic information system
- Hepatitis C
- Pakistan
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health