scholarly journals Decision Making within the Built Environment as a Strategy for Mitigating the Risk of Malaria and Other Vector-Borne Diseases

Buildings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Obonyo ◽  
Sumit Pareek ◽  
Dawit Woldu
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
World Health ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Vector Borne

Although significant efforts have been made to combat the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), they still account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 216 million estimated cases in 2016. The efforts that resulted in these positive outcomes lack long-term financial sustainability because of the significant amount of funding involved. There is, therefore, a need for more cost-effective intervention. The authors contend that design decisions in the built environment can have a positive impact on the efforts directed at mitigating the risk of malaria in a more cost-effective manner. It is known that the built environment, through features such as openings, can propagate the spread of malaria. There have been some significant efforts directed at addressing this risk. This notwithstanding, an extensive review of closely related work established that built environment professionals have limited access to information on specific ways through which their design decisions can contribute to mitigating the risk of malaria. The validity of this hypothesis was tested through evaluating the opportunities for synergies in selected parts of East Africa. Secondary data derived from relevant urban health journals as well as repositories curated by leading health agencies such as WHO were synthesized and analyzed using a web of causation approach. The outcome of the analysis is a schema of primary and secondary source (risk) factors. The use of the web of causation approach revealed the existing factor-to-factor interactions that could have a reinforcing effect. This information was used to identify the critical linkages and interdependencies across different factors. The outcome of the analysis was mapped against risk factors that can be linked to decisions made during the six primary phases of the construction life cycle: Preliminary phase, conceptual design, detailed design, construction, facilities management, and end of life/disuse. A conceptual architecture for a decision support framework has been proposed and will be developed into a prototype in subsequent efforts.

scholarly journals Decision Making within the Built Environment as a Strategy for Mitigating the Risk of Malaria and other Vector-Borne Diseases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Obonyo ◽  
Sumit Pareek ◽  
Dawit Okubatsion Woldu
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
World Health ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Reinforcing Effect ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
The Impact

Although significant efforts have been made to combat the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), they still account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 216 million estimated cases in 2016, which is a 9.3% decrease from the estimated cases reported one decade earlier. It is known that the built environment, through features such as openings, can propagate the spread of malaria. There have been some significant efforts directed at addressing this risk. This notwithstanding, there are some knowledge gaps that have resulted in a missed opportunity for synergistically tackling the problem of vectors through leveraging design decisions made by built environment professionals. This work assesses the extent to which design decisions in the built environment can have a positive impact on the efforts directed at mitigating the risk of malaria based on selected cases from East Africa. Secondary data derived from relevant urban health journals as well as repositories curated by leading health agencies such as WHO were synthesized and analyzed using a web of causation approach. The outcome of the analysis is a schema of primary and secondary source (risk) factors. The use of the web of causation approach revealed the existing factor-to-factor interactions that could have a reinforcing effect. This information was used to identify the critical linkages and interdependencies across different factors. The outcome of the analysis was mapped against risk factors that can be linked to decisions made during the six primary phases of the construction life cycle: preliminary phase, conceptual design, detailed design, construction, facilities management, and end of life/disuse. The findings of the research have established that 1) there is, in fact, a built environment–related opportunity that can be leveraged to advance the impact of malaria mitigation effort; 2) cross-disciplinary synergies are critical to managing the interdependencies and complexity of malaria risk factors that have a reinforcing effect; and 3) a knowledge-management framework that serves as a decision support tool would be valuable for sharing data under a push-and-pull mechanism, in which data shared in real time can address the timeliness of mitigating the spread of malaria at the earliest stages for the greatest impact. Based on the findings, a conceptual architecture for a decision support framework has been proposed. This will be developed into a knowledge-management platform in subsequent efforts.

scholarly journals From the Field to the Laboratory: Quantifying Outdoor Mosquito Landing Rate to Better Evaluate Topical Repellents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Moreno-Gómez ◽  
Rubén Bueno-Marí ◽  
Andrea Drago ◽  
Miguel A Miranda
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
Asian Tiger Mosquito ◽  
Personal Protection ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Testing Conditions ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Asian Tiger ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Vector-borne diseases are a worldwide threat to human health. Often, no vaccines or treatments exist. Thus, personal protection products play an essential role in limiting transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) arm-in-cage (AIC) test is the most common method for evaluating the efficacy of topical repellents, but it remains unclear whether AIC testing conditions recreate the mosquito landing rates in the field. This study aimed to estimate the landing rate outdoors, in an area of Europe highly infested with the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894, Diptera: Culididae)), and to determine how to replicate this rate in the laboratory. To assess the landing rate in the field, 16 individuals were exposed to mosquitoes in a highly infested region of Italy. These field results were then compared to results obtained in the laboratory: 1) in a 30 m3 room where nine volunteers were exposed to different mosquito abundances (ranges: 15–20, 25–30, and 45–50) and 2) in a 0.064 m3 AIC test cage where 10 individuals exposed their arms to 200 mosquitoes (as per WHO requirements). The highest mosquito landing rate in the field was 26.8 landings/min. In the room test, a similar landing rate was achieved using 15–20 mosquitoes (density: 0.50–0.66 mosquitoes/m3) and an exposure time of 3 min. In the AIC test using 200 mosquitoes (density: 3,125 mosquitoes/m3), the landing rate was 229 ± 48 landings/min. This study provides useful reference values that can be employed to design new evaluation standards for topical repellents that better simulate field conditions.

scholarly journals Narrative Review on Health-EDRM Primary Prevention Measures for Vector-Borne Diseases

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Chan ◽  
Tiffany Sham ◽  
Tayyab Shahzada ◽  
Caroline Dubois ◽  
Zhe Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

Climate change is expanding the global at-risk population for vector-borne diseases (VBDs). The World Health Organization (WHO) health emergency and disaster risk management (health-EDRM) framework emphasises the importance of primary prevention of biological hazards and its value in protecting against VBDs. The framework encourages stakeholder coordination and information sharing, though there is still a need to reinforce prevention and recovery within disaster management. This keyword-search based narrative literature review searched databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase and Medline between January 2000 and May 2020, and identified 134 publications. In total, 10 health-EDRM primary prevention measures are summarised at three levels (personal, environmental and household). Enabling factor, limiting factors, co-benefits and strength of evidence were identified. Current studies on primary prevention measures for VBDs focus on health risk-reduction, with minimal evaluation of actual disease reduction. Although prevention against mosquito-borne diseases, notably malaria, has been well-studied, research on other vectors and VBDs remains limited. Other gaps included the limited evidence pertaining to prevention in resource-poor settings and the efficacy of alternatives, discrepancies amongst agencies’ recommendations, and limited studies on the impact of technological advancements and habitat change on VBD prevalence. Health-EDRM primary prevention measures for VBDs require high-priority research to facilitate multifaceted, multi-sectoral, coordinated responses that will enable effective risk mitigation.

scholarly journals Prevalence and risk factors for selected canine vector-borne diseases in Greece

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasios Angelou ◽  
Athanasios I. Gelasakis ◽  
Natalia Verde ◽  
Nikola Pantchev ◽  
Roland Schaper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne

scholarly journals Climate change and vector-borne diseases: what are the implications for public health research and policy?

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1665) ◽  
pp. 20130552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum ◽  
Lucien Manga ◽  
Magaran Bagayoko ◽  
Johannes Sommerfeld
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Support ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Disease Rates ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne

Vector-borne diseases continue to contribute significantly to the global burden of disease, and cause epidemics that disrupt health security and cause wider socioeconomic impacts around the world. All are sensitive in different ways to weather and climate conditions, so that the ongoing trends of increasing temperature and more variable weather threaten to undermine recent global progress against these diseases. Here, we review the current state of the global public health effort to address this challenge, and outline related initiatives by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners. Much of the debate to date has centred on attribution of past changes in disease rates to climate change, and the use of scenario-based models to project future changes in risk for specific diseases. While these can give useful indications, the unavoidable uncertainty in such analyses, and contingency on other socioeconomic and public health determinants in the past or future, limit their utility as decision-support tools. For operational health agencies, the most pressing need is the strengthening of current disease control efforts to bring down current disease rates and manage short-term climate risks, which will, in turn, increase resilience to long-term climate change. The WHO and partner agencies are working through a range of programmes to (i) ensure political support and financial investment in preventive and curative interventions to bring down current disease burdens; (ii) promote a comprehensive approach to climate risk management; (iii) support applied research, through definition of global and regional research agendas, and targeted research initiatives on priority diseases and population groups.

scholarly journals Rapid ageing and species identification of natural mosquitoes for malaria surveillance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doreen J. Siria ◽  
Roger Sanou ◽  
Joshua Mitton ◽  
Emmanuel P. Mwanga ◽  
Abdoulaye Niang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mosquito Species ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Malaria Vectors ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Malaria Surveillance ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe malaria parasite, which is transmitted by several Anopheles mosquito species, requires more time to reach its human-transmissible stage than the average lifespan of a mosquito. Monitoring the species-specific age structure of mosquito populations is critical to evaluating the impact of vector control interventions on malaria risk. We developed a rapid, cost-effective surveillance method based on deep learning of mid-infrared spectra of mosquitoes’ cuticle that simultaneously identifies the species and the age of three main malaria vectors, in natural populations. Using over 40,000 ecologically and genetically diverse females, we could speciate and age grade An. gambiae, An. arabiensis, and An. coluzzii with up to 95% accuracy. Further, our model learned the age of new populations with minimal sampling effort and detected the impact of control interventions on simulated mosquito populations, measured as a shift in their age structures. We anticipate our method to be applied to other arthropod vector-borne diseases.

scholarly journals The Challenge of Controlling Urban Mosquito-Borne Diseases in a Changing Urban Climate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Ligsay ◽  
Olivier Telle ◽  
Richard Paul
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
The World ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Health Organization

Cities worldwide are facing ever-increasing pressure to develop mitigation strategies for all sectors to deal with the impacts of climate change. Cities are expected to house 70% of the world’s population by 2050 and developing related resilient health systems is a significant challenge. Because of their physical nature, cities’ surface temperatures are often substantially higher than that of the surrounding rural areas, generating the so-called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Whilst considerable emphasis has been placed on strategies to mitigate against the UHI-associated negative health effects of heat and pollution, the World Health Organization estimates that one of the main consequences of global warming will be an increased burden of such vector-borne diseases. Many of the major mosquito-borne diseases are urban and thus the global population exposed to these pathogens will steadily increase. Mitigation strategies beneficial for one sector may, however, be detrimental for another. Implementation of inter-sectoral strategies that can benefit many sectors (such as water, labour and health) do exist and would enable optimal use of the meagre resources available. Discussion among inter-sectoral stakeholders should be actively encouraged.

scholarly journals The Case for Laboratory Developed Procedures

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237428951770830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Kaul ◽  
Linda M. Sabatini ◽  
Gregory J. Tsongalis ◽  
Angela M. Caliendo ◽  
Randall J. Olsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
History Of ◽  
Laboratory Procedures ◽  
Improvement Programs ◽  
Quality Improvement Programs ◽  
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments

An explosion of knowledge and technology is revolutionizing medicine and patient care. Novel testing must be brought to the clinic with safety and accuracy, but also in a timely and cost-effective manner, so that patients can benefit and laboratories can offer testing consistent with current guidelines. Under the oversight provided by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, laboratories have been able to develop and optimize laboratory procedures for use in-house. Quality improvement programs, interlaboratory comparisons, and the ability of laboratories to adjust assays as needed to improve results, utilize new sample types, or incorporate new mutations, information, or technologies are positive aspects of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments oversight of laboratory-developed procedures. Laboratories have a long history of successful service to patients operating under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. A series of detailed clinical examples illustrating the quality and positive impact of laboratory-developed procedures on patient care is provided. These examples also demonstrate how Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments oversight ensures accurate, reliable, and reproducible testing in clinical laboratories.

scholarly journals Recommendations for Intersectoral Collaboration for the Prevention and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases: Results From a Modified Delphi Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 222 (Supplement_8) ◽  
pp. S726-S731
Author(s):  
Carl Abelardo T Antonio ◽  
Amiel Nazer C Bermudez ◽  
Kim L Cochon ◽  
Ma Sophia Graciela L Reyes ◽  
Chelseah Denise H Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Delphi Process ◽  
World Health ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
Intersectoral Action ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Modified Delphi ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
And Control

Abstract Background Intersectoral collaboration in the context of the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases has been broadly described in both the literature and the current global strategy by the World Health Organization. Our aim was to develop a framework that will distill the currently known multiple models of collaboration. Methods Qualitative content analysis and logic modeling of data abstracted from 69 studies included in a scoping review done by the authors were used to develop 9 recommendation statements that summarized the composition and attributes of multisectoral approaches, which were then subjected to a modified Delphi process with 6 experts in the fields of health policy and infectious diseases. Results Consensus for all statements was achieved during the first round. The recommendation statements were on (1–3) sectoral engagement to supplement government efforts and augment public financing; (4) development of interventions for most systems levels; (5–6) investment in human resource, including training; (7–8) intersectoral action to implement strategies and ensure sustainability of initiatives; and (9) research to support prevention and control efforts. Conclusions The core of intersectoral action to prevent vector-borne diseases is collaboration among multiple stakeholders to develop, implement, and evaluate initiatives at multiple levels of intervention.

scholarly journals Rickettsial infections: A blind spot in our view of neglected tropical diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. e0009353
Author(s):  
Jeanne Salje ◽  
Thomas Weitzel ◽  
Paul N. Newton ◽  
George M. Varghese ◽  
Nicholas Day
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
World Health ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Rickettsial Infections ◽  
Vector Borne

Rickettsial diseases are a group of vector-borne bacterial infections that cause acute febrile illness with potentially severe or fatal complications. These vector-borne diseases are prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide and disproportionately affect poorer communities but are scientifically underrecognized. Despite this, they are not included in the World Health Organization’s list of neglected tropical diseases nor were they mentioned in Peter Hotez’s recent reflections on “What constitutes a neglected tropical disease?” in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases [1]. Here we present the case that rickettsial infections, as an overlooked cause of morbidity, mortality, and economic losses in marginalized populations, should be recognized as neglected tropical diseases. We describe how this oversight is the result of a number of factors and how it negatively impacts patient outcomes. We then propose measures to address the neglect of rickettsial infections in both scientific research and public health interventions.

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