Sending out bacteria-carrying mosquitoes to protect people from dengue
Identifying vulnerable geographic areas so Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes
can protect as many people as possible
Date:
April 19, 2022
Source:
American Institute of Physics
Summary:
Researchers developed a model to spatially distribute mosquitoes
infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which reduce the transmission of
the dengue virus. The researchers use real data on human and vector
activity in a framework that can be analyzed from a mathematical
point of view, allowing them to re-create and understand the
epidemiological situation and identify those geographical areas
with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that
prioritizes those where Wolbachia- carrying mosquitoes can have
the strongest and most beneficial impact on the spread of the virus.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Dengue is the most widespread mosquito-borne disease in the world, and
to date, there are no medical treatments for people suffering from this disease. The virus causes symptoms ranging from high fevers to severe
bleeding and shock, can be life-threatening, and presents an enormous
burden on health systems.
==========================================================================
In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Spain, Portugal, and
Colombia developed a model the virus. In 2009, researchers discovered mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia bacteria lessen the chances for the dengue
virus to impact humans.
Mosquitoes do not acquire Wolbachia bacteria in their natural
environment, however. This bacterium must be introduced in vitro in
mosquitoes' eggs, which are later released in areas affected by dengue transmission. Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia naturally take over
the local mosquito population.
The researchers use real data on human and vector activity in a framework
that can be analyzed from a mathematical point of view, allowing
them to re-create and understand the epidemiological situation. In
this way, they can identify those geographical areas with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that prioritizes those where Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes can have the strongest and most beneficial
impact on the spread of the dengue virus.
"One might think that the most populated areas are those in which
Wolbachia release would be most beneficial. However, this is not always
true," said co- author Jesus Gomez-Gardenes, from Universidad del Valle
in Colombia.
The authors found once they immunize the most vulnerable geographical
area, the ranking of the remaining areas is affected, giving rise to a
new scenario that tells them where they should concentrate resources in
the second instance and beyond.
The findings from this research will be beneficial to many groups,
such as the World Mosquito Program, which is currently releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to protect the global community from
diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika.
In these kinds of initiatives, the information about the most vulnerable
areas within cities or regions proved the researchers' model could
complement field studies to find targets that maximize the benefit for
the whole community.
"Data-driven models have also proven useful to tackle the evolution and mitigation of other diseases such as COVID-19," said Gomez-Gardenes.
"Hopefully, the framework developed for dengue can be further generalized
for tackling the control of other vector-borne diseases."
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Institute_of_Physics. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. A. Reyna-Lara, D. Soriano-Pan~os, J. H. Arias-Castro,
H. J. Marti'nez, J.
Go'mez-Garden~es. A metapopulation approach to identify targets for
Wolbachia-based dengue control. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal
of Nonlinear Science, 2022; 32 (4): 041105 DOI: 10.1063/5.0087435 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220419112514.htm
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