[Application of Google Earth in the three dimensional visualization (TDV) of the warnings signaled by early warning system of infectious disease].

The purpose of this article was to investigate the application of Google Earth (GE) in the Three Dimensional Visualization (TDV) of the warnings signaled by early warning system of infectious disease. As an example, the prospective space-time scan statistics was used by mimicking daily prospective analyses of bacillary dysentery data from Shanghai municipality, Zhejiang province and Jiangsu province in 2005. Then one of the warnings was picked to illustrate the visualization of GE. GE could vividly display the results in three dimensions containing the complex information including date, areas, observed numbers, expected numbers etc. GE seemed a useful tool for infectious disease surveillance and had potential important values in reflecting the emergency response situation. The development of integrated system which consisted of GE, the infectious disease reporting system and cluster detection methods need to be emphasized for further research.