Prospective strategy regarding the use of geographic information system (GIS) to control tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria in developing countries

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that occurs in more than ۹۵% of cases and deaths in lowand middle-income countries that have recently recurred. Tracking, observing and comparing the incidence of diseases is essential for better prevention, management and control. By examining tuberculosis information, in addition to preventing death from the disease, other issues such as the failure of the health system and social network, as well as other problems in families and society can be found. Using geographic connections to identify how TB is transmitted increases public health monitoring. To reduce the transmission of tuberculosis, measures should be taken based on location. For this reason, the use of GIS in the field of establishment and distribution of health services, increases the productivity of health and treatment. One of the applications of GIS is informing and helping decision makers to manage health care and prevent the occurrence, spread and control of various diseases such as tuberculosis. Given the importance of mentioned diseases related tomycobacteria, we intend to develop a strategy for the use of GIS in this area in the country. The purpose of developing this strategy will be how to use the GIS to control and monitor tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis diseases in an integrated manner in the country. On the other hand, we hope that withthe implementation of this strategy, we will see a reduction in treatment costs and prevention of tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis diseases at the macro level, as well as fair and purposeful distribution of health services according to the information extracted from these systems.

Keywords:

geographic information system , non-tuberculous mycobacteria , tuberculosis , health care infrastructure