Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus exposure among febrile patients, cattle herders, and cattle herds in Cameroon.

Problem Addressed: Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne disease with high fatality rates and an expansive geographic distribution, yet disease prevalence data in Cameroon is lacking.

Objective: This study aimed to determine CCHF virus (CCHFV) seroprevalence and tick distribution among cattle herders and febrile patients in West and Centre Cameroon.

Methods And Approach: Two cross-sectional serological studies of human and cattle were conducted from October to December 2021 and from June to July 2022, which included the collection of ticks.

Mean daily temperatures can predict the thermal limits of malaria transmission better than rate summation.

Temperature shapes the distribution, seasonality, and magnitude of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. Mechanistic models predicting transmission often use mosquito and pathogen thermal responses from constant temperature experiments. However, mosquitoes live in fluctuating environments.

A New Paradigm for Pandemic Preparedness.

Purpose Of Review: Preparing for pandemics requires a degree of interdisciplinary work that is challenging under the current paradigm. This review summarizes the challenges faced by the field of pandemic science and proposes how to address them.

Recent Findings: The structure of current siloed systems of research organizations hinders effective interdisciplinary pandemic research.

Influence of environmental, geographic, socio-demographic, and epidemiological factors on presence of malaria at the community level in two continents.

The interactions of environmental, geographic, socio-demographic, and epidemiological factors in shaping mosquito-borne disease transmission dynamics are complex and changeable, influencing the abundance and distribution of vectors and the pathogens they transmit. In this study, 27 years of cross-sectional malaria survey data (1990-2017) were used to examine the effects of these factors on Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria presence at the community level in Africa and Asia. Monthly long-term, open-source data for each factor were compiled and analyzed using generalized linear models and classification and regression trees.

Assessing the value and knowledge gains from an online tick identification and tick-borne disease management course for the Southeastern United States.

Background: Tick-borne diseases are a growing public health threat in the United States. Despite the prevalence and rising burden of tick-borne diseases, there are major gaps in baseline knowledge and surveillance efforts for tick vectors, even among vector control districts and public health agencies. To address this issue, an online tick training course (OTTC) was developed through the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (SECOEVBD) to provide a comprehensive knowledge base on ticks, tick-borne diseases, and their management.

High prevalence of Zika virus infection in populations of Aedes aegypti from South-western Ecuador.

We performed an arboviral survey in mosquitoes from four endemic Ecuadorian cities (Huaquillas, Machala, Portovelo and Zaruma) during the epidemic period 2016-2018. Collections were performed during the pre-rainy season (2016), peak transmission season (2017) and post-rainy season (2018). Ae.

A systematic review of the data, methods and environmental covariates used to map Aedes-borne arbovirus transmission risk.

Background: Aedes (Stegomyia)-borne diseases are an expanding global threat, but gaps in surveillance make comprehensive and comparable risk assessments challenging. Geostatistical models combine data from multiple locations and use links with environmental and socioeconomic factors to make predictive risk maps. Here we systematically review past approaches to map risk for different Aedes-borne arboviruses from local to global scales, identifying differences and similarities in the data types, covariates, and modelling approaches used.

Trends in mosquito species distribution modeling: insights for vector surveillance and disease control.

Species distribution modeling (SDM) has become an increasingly common approach to explore questions about ecology, geography, outbreak risk, and global change as they relate to infectious disease vectors. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature, screening 563 abstracts and identifying 204 studies that used SDMs to produce distribution estimates for mosquito species. While the number of studies employing SDM methods has increased markedly over the past decade, the overwhelming majority used a single method (maximum entropy modeling; MaxEnt) and focused on human infectious disease vectors or their close relatives.

Spatio-temporal patterns of malaria in Nepal from 2005 to 2018: A country progressing towards malaria elimination.

Nepal aims to eliminate malaria by 2026. This study analyzed district-level spatio-temporal patterns of malaria in Nepal from 2005 to 2018, following the introduction of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) for vector control intervention. The spatial variation in a temporal trend (SVTT) method in SaTScan was used to detect significantly high or low temporal trends of five malaria indicators: Indigenous, Imported, PV (Plasmodium vivax), PF (Plasmodium falciparum), and Total Malaria; results were mapped as clusters with associated trends.

The current landscape of software tools for the climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling community.

Climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling is crucial for public health planning and is underpinned by a complex network of software tools. We identified only 37 tools that incorporated both climate inputs and epidemiological information to produce an output of disease risk in one package, were transparently described and validated, were named (for future searching and versioning), and were accessible (ie, the code was published during the past 10 years or was available on a repository, web platform, or other user interface). We noted disproportionate representation of developers based at North American and European institutions.

Diversity and Genetic Reassortment of Keystone Virus in Mosquito Populations in Florida.

Keystone orthobunyavirus (KEYV), a member of the genus Orthobunyavirus, was first isolated in 1964 from mosquitoes in Keystone, Florida. Although data on human infections are limited, the virus has been linked to a fever/rash syndrome and, possibly, encephalitis, with early studies suggesting that 20% of persons in the Tampa, Florida, region had antibodies to KEYV. To assess the distribution and diversity of KEYV in other regions of Florida, we collected > 6,000 mosquitoes from 43 sampling sites in St.

Newer Surveillance Data Extends our Understanding of the Niche of (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) Infection of the American Dog Tick (Acari: Ixodidae) in the United States.

Understanding the geographic distribution of infections in is important for tick-borne disease management in the United States, as both a tick-borne agent of interest and a potential confounder in surveillance of other rickettsial diseases. Two previous studies modeled niche suitability for with and without , from 2002 to 2012, indicating that the niche overestimates the infected niche. This study updates these, adding data since 2012.

Exploring the Mosquito-Arbovirus Network: A Survey of Vector Competence Experiments.

Arboviruses receive heightened research attention during major outbreaks or when they cause unusual or severe clinical disease, but they are otherwise undercharacterized. Global change is also accelerating the emergence and spread of arboviral diseases, leading to time-sensitive questions about potential interactions between viruses and novel vectors. Vector competence experiments help determine the susceptibility of certain arthropods to a given arbovirus, but these experiments are often conducted in real time during outbreaks, rather than with preparedness in mind.

Analyzing Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Designated Malaria Risk Areas in Nepal from 2018 to 2021.

Nepal is preparing to eliminate malaria by 2026. To evaluate the progress of vector control and prioritize areas for targeted intervention, understanding the recent changing distribution of high and moderate malaria risk areas is vital. Patterns of designated high and moderate malaria risk wards in Nepal between 2018 and 2021 were analyzed to identify stable and newly generated high- and moderate-risk (HaMR) wards, using the Spatial Temporal Analysis of Moving Polygons (STAMP) method.

Mapping current and future thermal limits to suitability for malaria transmission by the invasive mosquito Anopheles stephensi.

Background: Anopheles stephensi is a malaria-transmitting mosquito that has recently expanded from its primary range in Asia and the Middle East, to locations in Africa. This species is a competent vector of both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. Perhaps most alarming, the characteristics of An.

Extensive regional variation in the phenology of insects and their response to temperature across North America.

Climate change models often assume similar responses to temperatures across the range of a species, but local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity can lead plants and animals to respond differently to temperature in different parts of their range. To date, there have been few tests of this assumption at the scale of continents, so it is unclear if this is a large-scale problem. Here, we examined the assumption that insect taxa show similar responses to temperature at 96 sites in grassy habitats across North America.

Estimating the distribution of , a potential key host in expanding rickettsial tick-borne disease risk.

Increasingly, geographic approaches to assessing the risk of tick-borne diseases are being used to inform public health decision-making and surveillance efforts. The distributions of key tick species of medical importance are often modeled as a function of environmental factors, using niche modeling approaches to capture habitat suitability. However, this is often disconnected from the potential distribution of key host species, which may play an important role in the actual transmission cycle and risk potential in expanding tick-borne disease risk.

Characterizing the Vector Data Ecosystem.

A growing body of information on vector-borne diseases has arisen as increasing research focus has been directed towards the need for anticipating risk, optimizing surveillance, and understanding the fundamental biology of vector-borne diseases to direct control and mitigation efforts. The scope and scale of this information, in the form of data, comprising database efforts, data storage, and serving approaches, means that it is distributed across many formats and data types. Data ranges from collections records to molecular characterization, geospatial data to interactions of vectors and traits, infection experiments to field trials.

Newer Surveillance Data Extends our Understanding of the Niche of (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) Infection of the American Dog Tick (Acari: Ixodidae) in the United States.

Background: Understanding the geographic distribution of infections in is important for tick-borne disease management in the United States, as both a tick-borne agent of interest and a potential confounder in surveillance of other rickettsial diseases. Two previous studies modeled niche suitability for with and without , from 2002-2012, indicating that the niche overestimates the infected niche. This study updates these, adding data since 2012.