ABSTRACT
The first step in understanding diseases is to identify patterns. Data for disease occurrence and outbreak is usually characterised by spatial structures because of spatial autocorrelation.
Despite advances in medical knowledge, the etiological and pathological processes of many diseases still need to be better understood. Epidemiological knowledge is often statistical, based on the relation between occurrence rates and the
expected factors. One piece of the puzzle that needs to be solved is the spatial characteristics of the disease. Spatial variations are believed to be well known, and epidemiology factors in as a critical aspect.
