Heterogeneity in the Spatial Distribution of Humans and Mosquitoes: Dengue Risk On Oahu
Description
Vector borne viruses such as dengue infect millions of people annually. Dengue threatens 2.5 million people across tropical and subtropical regions, resulting in 50-100 million annual cases of dengue infection. In the Hawaiian Islands, dengue makes occasional, epidemic appearances, and although the local vector, the invasive Aedes albopictus, is known to be relatively inefficient at transmitting dengue, few quantitative studies have investigated the absence of an endemic transmission cycle. In the Hawaiian Islands human activities are heterogeneously distributed in space and time; so are disease vectors such as mosquitoes. A major aspect of the spatial distribution of disease-transmission risk is thus the interface between human landscape uses and the location of vector habitats within the landscape, i.e. vector-host contact. To estimate the spatial distribution of humans and Ae. albopictus on Oahu, we map standard data routinely collected by government agencies, such as census and surveillance data. To understand transmission risk, we integrate this rich empirical spatial data with the concept of basic reproduction rate borrowed from classical vector-borne disease models to estimate the density of vectors per host. Human density was mapped using two different approaches: first mapping the population based on residence (as collected in the census), then including recreational areas, which potentially overlap more with the vector distribution. This transdisciplinary application of tools from landscape ecology, geography and mathematical epidemiology, allows us to better understand how spatial heterogeneity in human and mosquito distribution combine to shape the risk of dengue transmission in Hawai‘i.
Collaborators
Durrell D. Kapan and Shannon N. Bennett, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu HI
Contact at UCL
References
Vanwambeke S.O. Bennett S.N., Kapan D., 2011, Spatial distribution of high risk for dengue virus transmission in Oahu, Hawaii. Tropical Medicine and International Health 16 (2): 174-185 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02671.x.
Vanwambeke S.O., Kapan D.D., Heterogeneity in the Spatial Distribution of Humans and Mosquitoes: Dengue Risk On Oahu. Hawaii Conservation Conference 2009 (Published abstract)