How land use affects the spread of disease – The way communities in Africa use or conserve land is tied to the transmission of Buruli ulcer and malaria.
Images of Erica Smithwick’s work in Africa:
Penn State researcher Erica Smithwick is investigating ties between land use and disease transmission in southern Africa.
Erica Smithwick leveraged cartography, geographic information systems (GIS) and reports of disease incidence to research links between land use and the transmission of two diseases in Africa, Buruli ulcer and malaria.
An alluvial gold mining site in Ghana.
Smithwick’s research team and collaborators comprise postdoctoral scholars, graduate students and researchers from multiple universities.
For her research, Smithwick traveled to several countries in Africa to collect water samples, as well as talk with community members and professionals about how widely two diseases had spread.
