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Understanding heterogeneities in mosquito-bite exposure and infection distributions for the elimination of lymphatic filariasis.

Irvine, Michael A, Kazura, James W, Hollingsworth, Deirdre T and Reimer, Lisa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9711-4981 (2018) 'Understanding heterogeneities in mosquito-bite exposure and infection distributions for the elimination of lymphatic filariasis.'. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, Vol 285, Issue 1871.

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Abstract

It is well known that individuals in the same community can be exposed to a highly variable number of mosquito bites. This heterogeneity in bite exposure has consequences for the control of vector-borne diseases because a few people may be contributing significantly to transmission. However, very few studies measure sources of heterogeneity in a way which is relevant to decision-making. We investigate the relationship between two classic measures of heterogeneity, spatial and individual, within the context of lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic mosquito-borne disease. Using infection and mosquito-bite data for five villages in Papua New Guinea, we measure biting characteristics to model what impact bed-nets have had on control of the disease. We combine this analysis with geospatial modelling to understand the spatial relationship between disease indicators and nightly mosquito bites. We found a weak association between biting and infection heterogeneity within villages. The introduction of bed-nets increased biting heterogeneity, but the reduction in mean biting more than compensated for this, by reducing prevalence closer to elimination thresholds. Nightly biting was explained by a spatial heterogeneity model, while parasite load was better explained by an individual heterogeneity model. Spatial and individual heterogeneity are qualitatively different with profoundly different policy implications.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: QX Parasitology > Insects. Other Parasites > QX 510 Mosquitoes
WA Public Health > WA 20.5 Research (General)
WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 395 Health in developing countries
WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 880 Filariasis and related conditions (General)
Faculty: Department: Biological Sciences > Vector Biology Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2253
Depositing User: Stacy Murtagh
Date Deposited: 31 Jan 2018 16:45
Last Modified: 09 Sep 2019 08:41
URI: https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/8070

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