Environmental limits of Rift Valley fever revealed using ecoepidemiological mechanistic models.

ABSTRACT: Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) of humans and domestic animals are a significant component of the global burden of disease and a key driver of poverty. The transmission cycles of VBDs are often strongly mediated by the ecological requirements of the vectors, resulting in complex transmission dynamics, including intermittent epidemics and an unclear link between environmental conditions and disease persistence. An important broader concern is the extent to which theoretical models are reliable at forecasting VBDs; infection dynamics can be complex, and the resulting systems are highly unstable. Here, we examine these problems in detail using a case study of Rift Valley fever (RVF), a high-burden disease endemic to Africa. We develop an ecoepidemiological, compartmental, mathematical model coup

SUBMITTER: Lo Iacono G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6077718 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature