In:
eLife, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, Vol. 7 ( 2018-08-14)
Abstract:
Dengue fever – a disease spread by mosquitos – causes large outbreaks in Asia and the South Pacific islands. Health agencies often try to reduce the spread of the disease by removing mosquito breeding grounds, like old tires and containers that may hold standing water. But it can be difficult to tell whether these preventive measures work because dengue transmission depends on many factors, including the weather and how many people had developed immunity because of previous infections. A common way to study patterns of infection and immunity is to collect blood samples from a subset of the population before and after an outbreak. Unfortunately, large dengue outbreaks occur sporadically on islands, making it hard to set up a study like this ahead of an outbreak. During 2013 and 2014, there was a major dengue outbreak in Fiji, with over 25,000 suspected cases reported. In response, the government introduced a nationwide mosquito clean-up campaign. As luck would have it, a group of researchers had collected blood samples immediately before the outbreak for an unrelated study of typhoid fever and leptospirosis. Now, Kucharski et al. – who include the researchers who collected those pre-outbreak blood samples – show that the clean-up campaign coincided with a reduction in transmission of the disease. Participants whose blood was collected before the dengue outbreak were invited to provide another blood sample after the dengue outbreak. This allowed Kucharski et al. to identify individuals who had already developed immunity to dengue before the outbreak and those who were likely infected during the outbreak. Comparing blood samples taken before and after the outbreak revealed that children and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 19 had the greatest risk of infection during the outbreak. No other demographic or environmental factors were strongly linked to the likelihood of infection. Computer models using the data also showed that the clean-up efforts could explain the reduced dengue transmission during the outbreak. These findings suggest that studying immunity against dengue can lead to a better understanding of disease transmission. This may help health agencies to gauge the effects of efforts to control this disease, and possibly forecast future outbreaks.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2050-084X
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.001
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.002
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.003
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.004
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.005
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.006
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.007
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.008
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.009
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.010
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.011
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.012
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.013
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.014
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.015
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.016
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.017
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.018
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.019
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.020
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.021
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.022
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.023
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.024
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.025
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.026
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.027
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.029
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.34848.030
Language:
English
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Publication Date:
2018
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2687154-3
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