Use of GIS to analyze the priority to far edge residents for presumptive treatment to control the spread of malaria Ayan Nandy Doctoral Student, IIM Calcutta address: 11/2B Madan Pal Lane Kolkata 700025 Tel: (033)24678300 extn- 298 (O), (033) 24547433 (R) Fax number: +91-33-2467-7174 (PGP Office) Email: ayan@iimcal.ac.in Introduction Mosquito-borne malaria is one of world's major infectious diseases killing around two to three million people each year and threatening around forty per cent of the world's population, mainly in developing countries where resistance is low and resources scarce. This paper culminates from a study conducted in the New Station Lines at the Ranichera Tea Estate, Malbazar Block, Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal one of the most malaria-prone region in West Bengal. In the paper we use some graph theoretic techniques to analyze the nature of spread of the disease and suggest a pattern of presumptive treatment using the concept of far edges [1]. The results obtained by using the suggested presumptive treatment pattern is compared with the actual results using the GISView Software. We show that priority to far edge residents for presumptive treatment could reduce the infection and death rate faster than the case of random presumptive treatment Graph theoretic concepts A graph consists of a set of Vertices and a set of edges. Each edge connects a pair of vertices. A sequence of edges form a path if every consecutive edges in the sequence share a common vertex and no edge is selected twice in the sequence. In a graph with n vertices and E edges, if there exists an edge e joining vertices a and b where there are distinct paths of lengths 1,2,3,…,k between a & b, but no path of length k +1, then e is said to be a far edge of order k. The model In our model, the vertices of a graph represent houses in New Station. Using the concept of buffer zone we define every house within a buffer zone of 50 metres of a certain house share an edge in the neighbourhood graph. After the neighbourhood graph is drawn, the far edges of various orders can be identified. Identification of the far edges can help to control the spread of the disease by giving priority to the vertices lying on far edges for presumptive treatment during a mass survey. The model in tested on a malaria-prone residential area (New Station) in a tea garden (Ranichera Tea Garden) of the Malbazar Block, Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The houses are mapped using ArcView. In the View 1 window, the different themes available are:
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