Earthbound mission for NASA: Public health

WASHINGTON -- From an orbit hundreds of miles above Earth, NASA's constellation of climate-research satellites may not be able to spot a flea in the desert Southwest.

But a program that uses space observations to pinpoint the habitats of rodents carrying plague-infected fleas could warn of disease outbreaks in vulnerable areas of New Mexico.

Run by NASA's Applied Sciences Program, the fast-developing tool is mining vegetation, rainfall, temperature and topography data from 14 climate-monitoring satellites to predict and prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The focus is on "vector-borne" diseases spread by rodents, mosquitoes, fleas and ticks. By monitoring climate, precipitation and ground-cover changes that encourage these creatures to thrive, scientists can offer early warnings about potential outbreaks of diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus and bubonic plague.

"This is a huge breakthrough revolution in the field of public health," says program manager John Haynes, who unveiled NASA's infectious-disease-finding abilities for doctors attending the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in Philadelphia last month.

Satellites have been used to predict the weather since 1960. Their use in making public-health decisions is only about a decade old.

"There's been a paradigm shift," Haynes says. NASA is reaching out to "front-line troops who are our nation's health defense."

Information from the remote sensors is being shared with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Defense Department, state health agencies, the World Health Organization and foreign governments.

Unlike surveys of patients, which are prone to human error, satellite data "provides a reliable tool for public health that … is not confounded by other factors," says Teresa Fryberger, NASA's Applied Sciences Earth Science Division director.

Among the diseases targeted:

Malaria

A parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes in tropical climates, malaria is a top concern for military planners. In 2003, one-third of U.S. personnel involved in a peacekeeping mission in Liberia came down with the disease.