Understanding the spatial patterns of infectious diseases can offer information about their causes and controls. Geographic information systems (GIS) is increasingly being used for analyzing the geographical distribution of diseases and relationships between pathogenic factors (causative agents, patients, vectors, and hosts) and their geographic environments.

The application of GIS in epidemiology helps with visualizing and analyzing the geographic distribution of diseases through time, therefore reveals Spatio-temporal trends, patterns, and relationships that would be more difficult to discover otherwise. In an outbreak investigation, that it is important to understand the spatial spread and dynamics of the outbreak, GIS is an important tool for epidemiological studies.