Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece

West Nile Virus (WNV) is the causative agent of a vector-borne, zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution. Recent expansion and introduction of WNV into new areas, including southern Europe, has been associated with severe disease in humans and equids, and has increased concerns regarding the n...

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Main Authors: Khudyakov, Yury E., Valiakos, George, Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos, Giannakopoulos, Alexios, Birtsas, Periklis, Tsiodras, Sotirios, Hutchings, Michael R., Spyrou, Vassiliki, Pervanidou, Danai, Athanasiou, Labrini V., Papadopoulos, Nikolaos, Tsokana, Constantina, Baka, Agoritsa, Manolakou, Katerina, Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios, Artois, Marc, Yon, Lisa, Hannant, Duncan, Petrovska, Liljana, Hadjichristodoulou, Christos, Billinis, Charalambos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2014
Online Access:http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/1/Valiakos%20et%20al_GIS_West%20Nile%20surveillance%20Greece.pdf
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spelling nottingham-376902018-07-02T09:08:43Z http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/ Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece Khudyakov, Yury E. Valiakos, George Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos Giannakopoulos, Alexios Birtsas, Periklis Tsiodras, Sotirios Hutchings, Michael R. Spyrou, Vassiliki Pervanidou, Danai Athanasiou, Labrini V. Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Tsokana, Constantina Baka, Agoritsa Manolakou, Katerina Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios Artois, Marc Yon, Lisa Hannant, Duncan Petrovska, Liljana Hadjichristodoulou, Christos Billinis, Charalambos West Nile Virus (WNV) is the causative agent of a vector-borne, zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution. Recent expansion and introduction of WNV into new areas, including southern Europe, has been associated with severe disease in humans and equids, and has increased concerns regarding the need to prevent and control future WNV outbreaks. Since 2010, 524 confirmed human cases of the disease have been reported in Greece with greater than 10% mortality. Infected mosquitoes, wild birds, equids, and chickens have been detected and associated with human disease. The aim of our study was to establish a monitoring system with wild birds and reported human cases data using Geographical Information System (GIS). Potential distribution of WNV was modelled by combining wild bird serological surveillance data with environmental factors (e.g. elevation, slope, land use, vegetation density, temperature, precipitation indices, and population density). Local factors including areas of low altitude and proximity to water were important predictors of appearance of both human and wild bird cases (Odds Ratio = 1,001 95%CI = 0,723–1,386). Using GIS analysis, the identified risk factors were applied across Greece identifying the northern part of Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) western Greece and a number of Greek islands as being at highest risk of future outbreaks. The results of the analysis were evaluated and confirmed using the 161 reported human cases of the 2012 outbreak predicting correctly (Odds = 130/31 = 4,194 95%CI = 2,841–6,189) and more areas were identified for potential dispersion in the following years. Our approach verified that WNV risk can be modelled in a fast cost-effective way indicating high risk areas where prevention measures should be implemented in order to reduce the disease incidence. Public Library of Science 2014-05-07 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/1/Valiakos%20et%20al_GIS_West%20Nile%20surveillance%20Greece.pdf Khudyakov, Yury E. and Valiakos, George and Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos and Giannakopoulos, Alexios and Birtsas, Periklis and Tsiodras, Sotirios and Hutchings, Michael R. and Spyrou, Vassiliki and Pervanidou, Danai and Athanasiou, Labrini V. and Papadopoulos, Nikolaos and Tsokana, Constantina and Baka, Agoritsa and Manolakou, Katerina and Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios and Artois, Marc and Yon, Lisa and Hannant, Duncan and Petrovska, Liljana and Hadjichristodoulou, Christos and Billinis, Charalambos (2014) Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece. PLoS ONE, 9 (5). e96935/1-e96935/8. ISSN 1932-6203 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096935 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096935 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096935
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
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description West Nile Virus (WNV) is the causative agent of a vector-borne, zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution. Recent expansion and introduction of WNV into new areas, including southern Europe, has been associated with severe disease in humans and equids, and has increased concerns regarding the need to prevent and control future WNV outbreaks. Since 2010, 524 confirmed human cases of the disease have been reported in Greece with greater than 10% mortality. Infected mosquitoes, wild birds, equids, and chickens have been detected and associated with human disease. The aim of our study was to establish a monitoring system with wild birds and reported human cases data using Geographical Information System (GIS). Potential distribution of WNV was modelled by combining wild bird serological surveillance data with environmental factors (e.g. elevation, slope, land use, vegetation density, temperature, precipitation indices, and population density). Local factors including areas of low altitude and proximity to water were important predictors of appearance of both human and wild bird cases (Odds Ratio = 1,001 95%CI = 0,723–1,386). Using GIS analysis, the identified risk factors were applied across Greece identifying the northern part of Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) western Greece and a number of Greek islands as being at highest risk of future outbreaks. The results of the analysis were evaluated and confirmed using the 161 reported human cases of the 2012 outbreak predicting correctly (Odds = 130/31 = 4,194 95%CI = 2,841–6,189) and more areas were identified for potential dispersion in the following years. Our approach verified that WNV risk can be modelled in a fast cost-effective way indicating high risk areas where prevention measures should be implemented in order to reduce the disease incidence.
format Article
author Khudyakov, Yury E.
Valiakos, George
Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos
Giannakopoulos, Alexios
Birtsas, Periklis
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Hutchings, Michael R.
Spyrou, Vassiliki
Pervanidou, Danai
Athanasiou, Labrini V.
Papadopoulos, Nikolaos
Tsokana, Constantina
Baka, Agoritsa
Manolakou, Katerina
Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios
Artois, Marc
Yon, Lisa
Hannant, Duncan
Petrovska, Liljana
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Billinis, Charalambos
spellingShingle Khudyakov, Yury E.
Valiakos, George
Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos
Giannakopoulos, Alexios
Birtsas, Periklis
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Hutchings, Michael R.
Spyrou, Vassiliki
Pervanidou, Danai
Athanasiou, Labrini V.
Papadopoulos, Nikolaos
Tsokana, Constantina
Baka, Agoritsa
Manolakou, Katerina
Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios
Artois, Marc
Yon, Lisa
Hannant, Duncan
Petrovska, Liljana
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Billinis, Charalambos
Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
author_facet Khudyakov, Yury E.
Valiakos, George
Papaspyropoulos, Konstantinos
Giannakopoulos, Alexios
Birtsas, Periklis
Tsiodras, Sotirios
Hutchings, Michael R.
Spyrou, Vassiliki
Pervanidou, Danai
Athanasiou, Labrini V.
Papadopoulos, Nikolaos
Tsokana, Constantina
Baka, Agoritsa
Manolakou, Katerina
Chatzopoulos, Dimitrios
Artois, Marc
Yon, Lisa
Hannant, Duncan
Petrovska, Liljana
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Billinis, Charalambos
author_sort Khudyakov, Yury E.
title Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
title_short Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
title_full Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
title_fullStr Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
title_full_unstemmed Use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and GIS spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of West Nile Virus in Greece
title_sort use of wild bird surveillance, human case data and gis spatial analysis for predicting spatial distributions of west nile virus in greece
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2014
url http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37690/1/Valiakos%20et%20al_GIS_West%20Nile%20surveillance%20Greece.pdf
first_indexed 2018-09-06T12:48:52Z
last_indexed 2018-09-06T12:48:52Z
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