All Hands on Deck!
[Jared] Hello,
I'm Lieutenant Commander Jared Rispens.
I am an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer,
and member of the United States Public Health Service
Commissioned Corps, assigned to VSP,
or the Vessel Sanitation Program.
VSP helps the cruise ship industry prevent
and control the introduction, transmission,
and spread of gastrointestinal or GI illnesses.
[Amy] And I'm Dr. Amy Lavery.
I am an EIS Officer with GRASP, or the Geospatial Research,
Analysis, and Services Program.
GRASP is a group dedicated to applying geospatial science,
technology, and data visualization
to address public health problems.
We collaborate with partners across CDC
to study patterns associated with environmental health,
infectious and chronic disease,
public health emergencies, and injuries.
CDC and ATSDR use GIS, or geographic information systems,
to investigate disease outbreaks
or other public health threats as they emerge.
The role of GIS during public health investigations advances
CDC's efforts to stop outbreaks as they occur
in the US, overseas, or at sea.
The GRASP and VSP partnership is important
because we're applying geospatial science
and technology to enhance traditional public
health investigations.
[Jared] GI illnesses can be challenging to control
on cruise ships because of the close living quarters,
shared dining areas, and rapid turnover of passengers.
When a ship docks, illnesses can get on board
through contaminated food or water,
or by passengers infected while ashore.
Outbreak investigations are important to stop illness
from spreading from one voyage to another.
We use a surveillance system
to observe GI illness patterns on cruise ships.
We determine the magnitude of illness aboard the ship,
the pathogen causing the illness,
and the risk factors associated with the illness,
and then we recommend control measures
to prevent the illness or stop the spread.
[Amy] In 2018, we piloted ways to use GIS
to understand cruise ship outbreaks in time and space,
meaning when and where an outbreak occurred.
Using GIS, we developed 3-dimensional models
of the cruise ship.
We then used these 3-D models to map rooms
that had sick passengers and observed
where sick passengers were on the ship
over the length of the voyage.
The 3D model of the cruise ship enabled CDC investigators
to identify links and patterns in the outbreak
by providing a more realistic visual presentation
of the outbreak from multiple perspectives.
[Jared] CDC also used GIS to look
for important spatial patterns during a cruise ship outbreak,
such as a cluster of rooms with sick people.
GIS enabled CDC to see spatial patterns more clearly
than we could using traditional methods.
[Amy] These investigations illustrate the powerful way
geospatial science
and technology can advance CDC's response
to outbreaks on cruise ships.
[Jared] To learn more, please visit the CDC/ATSDR website.