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Researchers have adapted a mathematical tool used by the Metropolitan Police and FBI to help control outbreaks of malaria. 

According to researchers the tool also has the potential to target other infectious diseases. 

Investigating agencies use a technique called geographic profiling that helps them prioritize their investigations. The technique involves using the spatial locations of the crimes to make inferences about the criminal's likely anchor point - usually a home or workplace. 

Researches demonstrated how the maths that underpins geographic profiling can be adapted to target the control of the infectious diseases such as malaria. 

Researchers also used the data from an outbreak in Cairo to show how the new model could use the addresses of patients with malaria to locate the breeding sites of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. 

"The experts working in the field had to search almost 300 square km to find seven breeding sites, but our model found the same sites after searching just two thirds of this area," said Dr Steve Le Comber, a senior lecturer at QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, in the press release. 

"In fact our model found five of the seven sites after searching just 10.7 square km. This is potentially important since there is a lot of evidence suggesting that the best way to control outbreaks of malaria is to attack the mosquito breeding sites - but it is incredibly difficult to do in practice."

The newly adapted mathematical approach takes just minutes on a computer meaning that it could be used in the early stages of the epidemics when control efforts are most likely to be effective. 

"The model has potential to identify the source of other infectious diseases as well, and we're now working with public health bodies to develop it further for use with TB, cholera and Legionnaires' disease," added Dr Le Comber in the press release. 

Researchers detailed the process in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.