USRA scientist's work filmed by Netflix, Inc.

Columbia, MD—August 27, 2019. Last week, USRA’s Dr. Assaf Anyamba was filmed by NetFlix, Inc. featuring his pioneering efforts to provide disease outbreak alerts resulting from climate activity. Dr. Anyamba and his collaborators are combining disease outbreak data, myriads of satellite data sets and climate forecasts in a machine learning framework to map areas at risk. The Netflix team that interviewed Dr. Anyamba will accompany him to South Africa to film his work in the field in September 2019.

Dr. Assaf Anyamba being interviewed by a member of the Netflix film crew

Dr. Anyamba and his collaborators published the first comprehensive study to assess the relationship between a major climate event and disease outbreak/health impacts on a global scale. Findings show that disease outbreaks in multiple regions worldwide followed shifts in rainfall, temperature and vegetation.

Dr. Anyamba also showed how the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) not only impacts weather and climate around the world but could also affect could affect health. In fact, ENSO can affect outbreaks of a variety of diseases, including cholera, Chikungunya, Zika, Rift Valley fever, and plague.

For more information,  please see the recent paper featured at Climate.gov and one on the Chikungunya virus caused by an infected mosquito bite https://vbd.usra.edu/.