Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission.
Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease which kills an estimated 50,000 people each year, with its deadly impact confined mainly to lower to middle income countries. Leishmania parasites are transmitted to human hosts by sand fly vectors during blood feeding. Recent experimental work shows tha...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009033&type=printable |
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| author | Samuel Carmichael Ben Powell Thomas Hoare Pegine B Walrad Jonathan W Pitchford |
| author_facet | Samuel Carmichael Ben Powell Thomas Hoare Pegine B Walrad Jonathan W Pitchford |
| author_sort | Samuel Carmichael |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease which kills an estimated 50,000 people each year, with its deadly impact confined mainly to lower to middle income countries. Leishmania parasites are transmitted to human hosts by sand fly vectors during blood feeding. Recent experimental work shows that transmission is modulated by the patchy landscape of infection in the host's skin, and the parasite population dynamics within the vector. Here we assimilate these new findings into a simple probabilistic model for disease transmission which replicates recent experimental results, and assesses their relative importance. The results of subsequent simulations, describing random parasite uptake and dynamics across multiple blood meals, show that skin heterogeneity is important for transmission by short-lived flies, but that for longer-lived flies with multiple bites the population dynamics within the vector dominate transmission probability. Our results indicate that efforts to reduce fly lifespan beneath a threshold of around two weeks may be especially helpful in reducing disease transmission. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a301ed86cd2347ab8ae332d9fdb2e2f0 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1935-2727 1935-2735 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| spelling | doaj-art-a301ed86cd2347ab8ae332d9fdb2e2f02025-08-20T02:33:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases1935-27271935-27352021-01-01151e000903310.1371/journal.pntd.0009033Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission.Samuel CarmichaelBen PowellThomas HoarePegine B WalradJonathan W PitchfordLeishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease which kills an estimated 50,000 people each year, with its deadly impact confined mainly to lower to middle income countries. Leishmania parasites are transmitted to human hosts by sand fly vectors during blood feeding. Recent experimental work shows that transmission is modulated by the patchy landscape of infection in the host's skin, and the parasite population dynamics within the vector. Here we assimilate these new findings into a simple probabilistic model for disease transmission which replicates recent experimental results, and assesses their relative importance. The results of subsequent simulations, describing random parasite uptake and dynamics across multiple blood meals, show that skin heterogeneity is important for transmission by short-lived flies, but that for longer-lived flies with multiple bites the population dynamics within the vector dominate transmission probability. Our results indicate that efforts to reduce fly lifespan beneath a threshold of around two weeks may be especially helpful in reducing disease transmission.https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009033&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Samuel Carmichael Ben Powell Thomas Hoare Pegine B Walrad Jonathan W Pitchford Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
| title | Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. |
| title_full | Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. |
| title_fullStr | Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. |
| title_short | Variable bites and dynamic populations; new insights in Leishmania transmission. |
| title_sort | variable bites and dynamic populations new insights in leishmania transmission |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009033&type=printable |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT samuelcarmichael variablebitesanddynamicpopulationsnewinsightsinleishmaniatransmission AT benpowell variablebitesanddynamicpopulationsnewinsightsinleishmaniatransmission AT thomashoare variablebitesanddynamicpopulationsnewinsightsinleishmaniatransmission AT peginebwalrad variablebitesanddynamicpopulationsnewinsightsinleishmaniatransmission AT jonathanwpitchford variablebitesanddynamicpopulationsnewinsightsinleishmaniatransmission |