Shiyong Wang

Citation

Thesis Title
Development of a Method for Optimal Detection of Emerging Disease Incursions

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Emerging infectious diseases have generated major economic impact, loss of life and social instability. To mitigate the negative impacts of future outbreaks, it is imperative to have a sensitive surveillance system for prompt cost-effective disease detection. Mr Wang developed a software toolbox, the Human and Animal Disease Response Program (HandiResponse) that uses global satellite imagery and national data for any country to generate a disease risk landscape to map geographic variation in where a disease of concern is likely to be found. Possible outbreaks of the disease are simulated on the risk landscape, and different methods of detection are evaluated in the spatial model. A portfolio which combines several different surveillance methods is then determined by a global optimisation method which uses both speed of detection and economic criteria to identify an optimal solution. The system was applied to example disease data sets in Asia and improved disease detection.

Supervisors
Dr Joanna McKenzie
Professor Roger Morris
Dr Pete Jolly