Creating a National Vector Surveillance System: Integrated mosquito trap data and digital epidemiology

Rund, S. S. C.; Martinez, M. E.

doi:10.1101/096875

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/096875

Creating a National Vector Surveillance System: Integrated mosquito trap data and digital epidemiology

Rund, S. S. C.·Martinez, M. E.

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Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, every year more than a billion people are infected with vector-borne diseases worldwide. There are no vaccines for most vector-borne diseases. Vector control, therefore, is often the only way to prevent outbreaks. Despite the major impact of vectors on human health, knowledge gaps exist regarding their natural population dynamics. Even the most basic information--such as spatiotemporal abundance-- is not available. Mosquitoes transmit malaria and the viruses causing Yellow Fever, West Nile, Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika in the Americas. The Americas have a long history of mosquito control efforts, including the unsustained but successful Aedes aegypti eradication initiative. In the US, municipalities have independently created agencies for mosquito control and monitoring. We propose that the ensemble of US mosquito control agencies can, and should, be used to develop a national--and potentially international--system for Cross-Scale Vector Monitoring and Control (CSVMaC), in which local level monitoring and control efforts are cross-linked by unified real-time data streaming to build the data capital needed to gain a mechanistic understanding of vector population dynamics. Vectors, and the pathogens they transmit, know no jurisdictions. The vision of CSVMaC is, therefore, to provide data for (i) the general study of mosquito ecology and (ii) to inform vector control during epidemics/outbreaks that impact multiple jurisdictions (i.e., counties, states, etc.). We reveal >1000 mosquito control agencies in the US with enormous troves of data that are hidden among many data silos. For CSVMaC, we propose the creation of a nationally-coordinated open-access database to collate mosquito data. The database would provide scientific and public health communities with highly resolved spatiotemporal data on arboviral disease vectors, empowering new interventions and insights while leveraging pre-existing human efforts, operational infrastructure, and investments already funded by taxpayers.

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Rund, S. S. C., Martinez, M. E.. 2016-12-27. Creating a National Vector Surveillance System: Integrated mosquito trap data and digital epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1101/096875

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