Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Electronic address: Kimberly.Fornace@lshtm.ac.uk
  • 2 Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
  • 3 Infectious Diseases Society Sabah, Menzies School of Health Research Clinical Research Unit, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; Infectious Diseases Unit, Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; Sabah Department of Health, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 4 Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Health, Filinvest, Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines
Trends Parasitol, 2014 Nov;30(11):514-9.
PMID: 25443854 DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2014.09.001

Abstract

The potential applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have generated intense interest across many fields. UAVs offer the potential to collect detailed spatial information in real time at relatively low cost and are being used increasingly in conservation and ecological research. Within infectious disease epidemiology and public health research, UAVs can provide spatially and temporally accurate data critical to understanding the linkages between disease transmission and environmental factors. Using UAVs avoids many of the limitations associated with satellite data (e.g., long repeat times, cloud contamination, low spatial resolution). However, the practicalities of using UAVs for field research limit their use to specific applications and settings. UAVs fill a niche but do not replace existing remote-sensing methods.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.