Rodent Population Dynamics and Leptospirosis Infection in Urban Slum Enviornments

城市贫民窟环境中的啮齿动物种群动态和钩端螺旋体病感染

• 批准号: 8786313
• 负责人: kathryn patricia hacker
• 金额: $ 2.73万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8786313
• 关键词: Address; Animals; Brazil; Chronic; Cities; Clinical; Cohort Studies; Collaborations; Communities; Coupled; Crowding; Data; Developing Countries; Disease; Environment; Epidemic; Epidemiologic Studies; Epidemiology; Foundations; Goals; Gold; Hantavirus; Health; Household; Human; Infection; Infectious Agent; Ink; Intervention; Investigation; Investments; Kidney; Knowledge; Leptospira interrogans; Leptospirosis; Life; Link; Location; Longitudinal Studies; Maintenance; Maps; Measures; Methodology; Methods; Metric; Modeling; Order Spirochaetales; Outcome; Population; Population Dynamics; Population Sizes; Prevalence; Preventive; Proxy; Rattus; Rattus norvegicus; Recruitment Activity; Relative (related person); Reliance; Research; Resources; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Rodent; Rodent Control; Role; Sampling; Slum; Socioeconomic Status; Surface; Surveys; Techniques; Testing; Time; Training; United States Public Health Service; Universities; Urine; Zoonoses; base; cohort; demographics; design; disease transmission; enzootic; evidence base; improved; multidisciplinary; novel; pathogen; programs; public health relevance; skills; standard measure; success; tool; transmission process

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Emerging and re-emerging infections are widely acknowledged to be an urgent and growing global threat to human health. Nowhere is this more important than in urban slums, where humans are typically crowded, often inherently vulnerable, and live in close proximity with animal and environmental reservoirs of infectious agents. Leptospirosis, a spirochetal zoonosis, has emerged as an important health problem in tropical slum settlements. The disease is associated with life-threatening clinical manifestations for which case fatality is >10%. Effective preventive measures are urgently needed, as the population residing in slums will double from one to two billion in the next 20 years. In urban slums of Brazil and many other temperate and tropical cities, leptospires are transmitted to humans through contact with environments contaminated by infectious urine shed from rodents. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) are the principal reservoir host for leptospirosis and the prevalence of chronic infection of their kidneys exceeds 50% within rat populations of Salvador Brazil. However, our epidemiologic understanding of urban leptospirosis is limited and knowledge of how rat abundance contributes to risk of human infection are critical to inform expensive rat-control efforts, which in Brazil and other developing have been uniformly ineffective. The proposed study aims to~ 1) Assess, quantify and improve upon the three currently used methods [trapping counts, tracking board and rodent infestation surveys] for estimating R. norvegicus abundance in urban slum conditions and 2) Validate these metrics as a predictive measure of leptospirosis infection and distribution amongst a longitudinally-studied cohort of urban slum dwellers. To succeed, novel statistical and geostatistical methods will be developed to generate integrated models of the best combination of rat abundance measures with geocoded data (demographics, socioeconomic status and risk behaviors obtained from the cohort study coupled with environmental data and qualitative rat-survey information) to produce predictive GIS-generated map surfaces. The results of the proposed study will elucidate the dynamics between rat abundance and risk of human leptospirosis infection/disease. The results will provide evidence-based results to better inform rodent control campaigns. The methods developed in the proposed study will be applicable for a wide range of both epidemiological and ecological studies on zoonotic disease. Furthermore the proposed study will provide the candidate with training in designing and implementing field investigations in resource poor settings, applying advanced spatio-temporal statistical methodologies to understand disease transmission, and developing a multidisciplinary skill set and collaborations which will enable her to pursue her long-term goal of addressing zoonotic diseases through research in eco-epidemiology.

描述（由申请人提供）：新出现和重新出现的感染被广泛认为是对人类健康的紧迫和日益增长的全球威胁。 这一点在城市贫民窟中尤为重要，因为在那里，人们通常非常拥挤，往往天生就很脆弱，而且与动物和环境中的传染源非常接近。钩端螺旋体病是一种人畜共患螺旋体病，已成为热带贫民窟居民区的一个重要健康问题。 这种疾病与危及生命的临床表现有关 其病死率> 10%。迫切需要采取有效的预防措施，因为居住在贫民窟的人口将在今后20年内翻一番，从10亿增加到20亿。 在巴西的城市贫民窟和许多其他温带和热带城市，钩端螺旋体通过接触被啮齿动物排出的传染性尿液污染的环境传播给人类。 挪威大鼠（Rattus norvegicus）是钩端螺旋体病的主要储存宿主，在巴西萨尔瓦多的大鼠种群中，其肾脏慢性感染的患病率超过50%。 然而，我们对城市钩端螺旋体病的流行病学了解是有限的，了解老鼠的丰度如何增加人类感染的风险对于告知昂贵的老鼠控制工作至关重要，而在巴西和其他发展中国家，老鼠控制工作一直是无效的。 本研究的目的是：1）评估、量化和改进目前使用的三种方法（诱捕计数、跟踪板和鼠患调查）来估计R。城市贫民窟条件下的褐家鼠丰度和2）验证这些指标作为对城市贫民窟居民队列进行纵向研究的钩端螺旋体病感染和分布的预测指标。 为了取得成功，将开发新的统计和地质统计方法，以生成大鼠丰度测量与地理编码数据（从队列研究中获得的人口统计学，社会经济地位和风险行为，以及环境数据和定性大鼠调查信息）的最佳组合的综合模型，以生成预测性GIS生成的地图表面。 拟议研究的结果将阐明大鼠丰度与人类钩端螺旋体病感染/疾病风险之间的动态关系。 研究结果将提供以证据为基础的结果，以更好地为啮齿动物控制活动提供信息。 本研究所建立的方法可广泛应用于人畜共患病的流行病学和生态学研究。 此外，拟议的研究将为候选人提供在资源贫乏环境中设计和实施实地调查的培训，应用先进的时空统计方法来了解疾病传播，并开发多学科技能和合作，使她能够通过生态流行病学研究实现解决人畜共患病的长期目标。