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Environmental Biosurveillance for Epidemic Prediction: Experience with Rift Valley Fever

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Biosurveillance and Biosecurity (BioSecure 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNBI,volume 5354))

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Abstract

Despite established links between climate and infectious disease activity, few biosurveillance systems use climatic data to forecast epidemics. The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather worldwide and in East Africa is associated with flooding and Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease of economically important livestock and humans. Following a regional ENSO-associated outbreak in 1997-1998, several agencies created a system to forecast RVF using satellite-based monitoring of ENSO and other climatic phenomena. The system generated 5 alerts since 2005. Following 3, in South Africa (2008), Sudan (2007), and East Africa (2006), RVF occurred in high-risk areas (no other RVF outbreaks were reported in monitored areas). Alerts for the Arabian Peninsula (2005) and Sudan (2005) were not followed by RVF reports, though the latter preceded a large Yellow Fever epidemic. Future directions for the system include decision analysis to guide public health interventions and extension to other climate-associated risks.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Division of Preventive Medicine, Silver Spring, MD, USA

    Jean-Paul Chretien

  2. US NationalAeronautics and Space Administration-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Assaf Anyamba, Jennifer Small & Compton J. Tucker

  3. US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Center for Medical Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Seth C. Britch & Kenneth J. Linthicum

Authors
  1. Jean-Paul Chretien
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  2. Assaf Anyamba
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  3. Jennifer Small
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  4. Compton J. Tucker
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  5. Seth C. Britch
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  6. Kenneth J. Linthicum
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MIS Department, University of Arizona and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Daniel Zeng

  2. Department of Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management, The University of Arizona, 85721, AZ, USA

    Hsinchun Chen

  3. US CDC, National Center for Public Health Informatics, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Henry Rolka

  4. University of Washington, Health Sciences Building, 1959 NE Pacific St., WA 98195, Seattle, USA

    Bill Lober

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chretien, JP., Anyamba, A., Small, J., Tucker, C.J., Britch, S.C., Linthicum, K.J. (2008). Environmental Biosurveillance for Epidemic Prediction: Experience with Rift Valley Fever. In: Zeng, D., Chen, H., Rolka, H., Lober, B. (eds) Biosurveillance and Biosecurity . BioSecure 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5354. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89746-0_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89746-0_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-89745-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-89746-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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