Over 300,000 people died during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, mostly in the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince. Shortly after, a cholera outbreak in a U.N. camp broke out in a northern province and quickly spread to the city.
Tracking people when they move around during natural disasters has traditionally been a challenge. This can increase the loss of human life by complicating the process of delivering relief assistance. In a recent study form Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, researchers were able to use cell phone data (from SIM cards) by working with Digicel, the largest mobile phone company in Haiti, to track the movement of people after the earthquake and out of the cholera outbreak area (picture above).
They found about 630,000 people (197,484 Digicel SIM cards) in Port-au-Prince on the day of the earthquake had left 19 days post-earthquake. They were able to find the location of an average of 3,676 SIMs leaving the cholera outbreak area during the 8-day study period. They also found that the news coverage about the outbreak failed to increase the number of SIMs leaving the outbreak area.
Having this kind of information available in real time during natural disasters and disease epidemics can greatly increase the accuracy and efficiency of targeting relief efforts to those at need.
