In a letter to the journal Science, SFI Omidyar Fellow Sam Scarpino and co-authors stress the importance of understanding mobility patterns to dynamically model the spread of Ebola.
The authors write that "modeling efforts are limited in the absence of good mobility data," and they describe the need for further data on human mobility patterns in West Africa. Analyses of existing mobile phone data and air travel data have produced initial maps of Ebola’s movement, but more data is required to inform dynamic transmission models, which are necessary for planning appropriate interventions as the outbreak evolves.
Read the letter in Science (October 24, 2014)