October 11, 2012 | 2 Your cell phone location information can be
used to help you find restaurants or help companies serve you
targeted ads. What if all of this data could also play a role in
studying and fighting deadly infectious diseases, such as
malaria? An international team of researchers has done just
that—for an entire country. People can travel much farther, and
far more quickly, than the mosquitoes that carry the malaria
parasite (Plasmodium falciparum). The research team, led by Amy
Wesolowski, of Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of
Engineering and Public Policy, was able to analyze cell phone
location information for each of Kenya’s 14.8 million cell phone
users. Even phones without GPS are providing general location
info based on what cell towers they are using. The research was
published online October 11 in Science. Each call and text that
was fed through one of 11,920 cell towers logged that
individual’s location. People were ascribed a home area based on
their most often used cell towe