Sarita Panchang, Samuel Alao, Jacob GB and Ricardo Izurieta
Cholera, caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae, hit Latin America after nearly a century in 1991. Ecuador was one of the most highly impacted regions by morbidity. While a number of infrastructural and socially relevant factors have been cited in cholera transmission, a growing body of work also points to the relevance of ecological factors, namely the presence and cycle of copepods and blue-green algae which may harbor the bacteria at certain times. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the utility of an interpolation technique which could be used alongside cholera case rate data to determine a predictive environmental signature for cholera risk areas in the future.