Pan-European Chikungunya surveillance: Designing risk stratified surveillance zones
Autor(es): Tilston Natasha, Skelly Chris, Weinstein Phil
Resumo: The first documented transmission of Chikungunya within Europe took place in Italy during the summer of 2007. Chikungunya, a viral infection affecting millions of people across Africa - Asia, can be debilitating - no prophylactic treatment exists. Although imported cases are reported frequently across Europe, 2007 was the first confirmed European outbreak - available evidence suggests that Aedes albopictus was the vector responsible - the index case was a visitor from India. This paper proposed pan-European surveillance zones for Chikungunya, based on the climatic conditions necessary for vector activity - viral transmission. Pan-European surveillance provides the best hope for an early-warning of outbreaks, because national boundaries do not play a role in defining the risk of this new vector borne disease threat. A review of climates, where Chikungunya has been active, was used to inform the delineation of three pan-European surveillance zones. These vary in size each month across the June-September period of greatest risk. The zones stretch across southern Europe from Portugal to Turkey. Although the focus of this study was to define the geography of potential surveillance zones based on the climatic limits on the vector - virus, a preliminary examination of inward bound airline passengers was also undertaken. This indicated that France - Italy are likely to be at greater risk due to the number of visitors they receive from Chikungunya active regions, principally viraemic visitors from India. Therefore this study represents a first attempt at creating risk stratified surveillance zones, which we believe could be usefully refined with the use of higher resolution climate data - more complete air travel data.
Imprenta: International Journal of Health Geographics, v. 8, p. 61, 2009
Identificador do objeto digital: 10.1186/1476-072X-8-61
Descritores: Chikungunya virus - Pathogenesis ; Chikungunya virus - Viral infections ; Chikungunya Virus - Virus ; Chikungunya virus - Transmission ; Chikungunya virus - Epidemiology ; Chikungunya virus - Public health
Data de publicação: 2009
