A systematic review of mathematical models of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission: 1970-2010.

Journal article

Mathematical models of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission originated in the early twentieth century to provide insights into how to most effectively combat malaria. The foundations of the Ross-Macdonald theory were established by 1970. Since then, there has been a growing interest in reducing the public health burden of mosquito-borne pathogens and an expanding use of models to guide their control. To assess how theory has changed to confront evolving public health challenges, we compiled a bibliography of 325 publications from 1970 through 2010 that included at least one mathematical model of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission and then used a 79-part questionnaire to classify each of 388 associated models according to its biological assumptions. As a composite measure to interpret the multidimensional results of our survey, we assigned a numerical value to each model that measured its similarity to 15 core assumptions of the Ross-Macdonald model. Although the analysis illustrated a growing acknowledgement of geographical, ecological and epidemiological complexities in modelling transmission, most models during the past 40 years closely resemble the Ross-Macdonald model. Modern theory would benefit from an expansion around the concepts of heterogeneous mosquito biting, poorly mixed mosquito-host encounters, spatial heterogeneity and temporal variation in the transmission process.

Authors: Reiner, R; Perkins, T; Barker, C; Niu, T; Chaves, L

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Journal of the Royal Society, Interface / the Royal Society
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 81
• Pages: 20120921
• Publication date: 2013-04-01
• DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2012.0921
• EISSN: 1742-5662
• ISSN: 1742-5689
• Language: English
• Keywords: Culicidae; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Models, Biological; Geography; Animals; Insect Vectors; Communicable Diseases