ABSTRACT
Health is not merely the absence of disease but a state of complete physical, social, and mental activeness, whereas health care is the management, treatment, and prevention of illness. Health is a very important parameter to indicate the good living and quality of life of an individual. Many pathological factors are involved in a disease such as people, vectors, causative agents, and hosts. Monitoring of health and development of the public health sector is an important aspect for the social, cultural, and economic well-being of society. Thus, for the analysis of these pathological factors with their relationship with geographical distribution, GIS (spatial, temporal references) and other cartographic information taken from remote sensing and other technologies can be used effectively. Through mapping and analysed temporal and spatial patterns, the distribution of a particular health status cause can be tracked. Incorporating the records attained from ground data and sensors helps in the enhancement of results. This review includes recent literature on healthcare and GIS. It includes descriptions of various disease agents, and how GIS helps in the analysis of their distribution and occurrence. To study a disease, GIS is a promising area however it has not reached its full potential. For this, disease and environmental observation systems need to be further developed.
