Spatial epidemiology in zoonotic parasitic diseases: insights gained at the 1st International Symposium on Geospatial Health in Lijiang, China, 2007

The 1(st) International Symposium on Geospatial Health was convened in Lijiang, Yunnan province, People's Republic of China from 8 to 9 September, 2007. The objective was to review progress made with the application of spatial techniques on zoonotic parasitic diseases, particularly in Southeast Asia. The symposium featured 71 presentations covering soil-transmitted and water-borne helminth infections, as well as arthropod-borne diseases such as leishmaniasis, malaria and lymphatic filariasis. The work made public at this occasion is briefly summarized here to highlight the advances made and to put forth research priorities in this area. Approaches such as geographical information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS) and remote sensing (RS), including spatial statistics, web-based GIS and map visualization of field investigations, figured prominently in the presentation.