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Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal Modeling to predict cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in Chile

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal

Nsoesie EO, Mekaru SR, Ramakrishnan N, Marathe MV, Brownstein JS
2014
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 8 (4): e2779

Background:Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a life threatening disease transmitted by the rodent Oligoryzomys longicaudatus in Chile. Hantavirus outbreaks are typically small and geographically confined. Several studies have estimated risk based on spatial and temporal distribution of cases in relation to climate and environmental variables, but few have considered climatological modeling of HPS incidence for monitoring and forecasting purposes.Methodology:Monthly counts of confirmed HPS cases were obtained from the Chilean Ministry of Health for 2001-2012. There were an estimated 667 confirmed HPS cases. The data suggested a seasonal trend, which appeared to correlate with changes in climatological variables such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity. We considered several Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time-series models and regression models with ARIMA errors with one or a combination of these climate variables as covariates. We adopted an information-theoretic approach to model ranking and selection. Data from 2001-2009 were used in fitting and data from January 2010 to December 2012 were used for one-step-ahead predictions.Results:We focused on six models. In a baseline model, future HPS cases were forecasted from previous incidence; the other models included climate variables as covariates. The baseline model had a Corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc) of 444.98, and the top ranked model, which included precipitation, had an AICc of 437.62. Although the AICc of the top ranked model only provided a 1.65% improvement to the baseline AICc, the empirical support was 39 times stronger relative to the baseline model.Conclusions:Instead of choosing a single model, we present a set of candidate models that can be used in modeling and forecasting confirmed HPS cases in Chile. The models can be improved by using data at the regional level and easily extended to other countries with seasonal incidence of HPS.

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Resource Description

    Ecosystem Change, Meteorological Factor, Precipitation, Temperature
    • Ecosystem Change, Meteorological Factor, Precipitation, Temperature: Variability
    General Geographic Feature
    Non-United States
    • Non-United States: Central/South America
    Infectious Disease
    • Infectious Disease: Vectorborne Disease, Zoonotic Disease
      • Vectorborne Disease, Zoonotic Disease: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
      Zoonotic Disease
    Methodology, Outcome Change Prediction
    Inter-Annual (1-10 years)
    Research Article
    Adaptation
    • Adaptation: Adaptation Co-Benefit/Co-Harm, Early Warning System, Vulnerability Assessment
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