HIV/AIDS, GIS and the Internet: Efficient health care planning and equitable resource allocation for HIV/AIDS health and social services.

摘要

GIS and the internet are important resources for public health practitioners in Kenya for efficient health care planning, equitable allocation of resources for HIV/AIDS health and social services, and dissemination of timely information. Six public health organizations in Kenya participated in a survey to discuss the importance of GIS and Internet GIS in their practice. All the practitioners regarded this technology as very important in public health functions such as determining areas with service shortages, determining health needs at a micro-level, planning the location of health services, and evaluating the performance of HIV/AIDS intervention programs. Using the internet to disseminate geographic and HIV/AIDS surveillance data was discussed as enabling easy and timely access to and sharing of information with all public health practitioners and the public in Kenya. The challenges discussed of implementing an Internet GIS in Kenya include institutionalizing this resource as an important public health tool and creating a central database with data from all public health practitioners in Kenya.