Dallas County, TX, the county hit hardest with WNV incidence in the 2012 outbreak, witnessed the greatest increase in WNV infections of any urban area in the United States during the virus’s 2012 resurgence (7). The incidence rate of WNV in Dallas County in 2012 was 7.30 per 100,00 residents– a total of 398 cases reported (7, 10). In this paper, my study area and year are Dallas County, Texas in 2012. Dallas County, Texas had 167 positive mosquito pools, no avian positive cases, 3 equine cases (3).
Mosquito Species of Interest
Amongst the mosquito species infected with WNV in Dallas County, the C. quinquefasciatus (southern horse mosquito) was the most prevalent (7, 32). The southern horse mosquito is prevalent in Southern United States as …show more content…
Environmental Determinants: The risk and susceptibility of WNV infection are hypothesized to have both environmental and demographic determinants, although the “exact factors that contributed to this epidemic are unknown” (11, 32). Some environmental factors include, but are not limited to the amount of precipitation and average temperature per month. It is hypothesized that the severity of the 2012 outbreak of WNV was due to the several outbreak states having the “highest average annual temperature and one of the lowest annual precipitations...in over 100 years” (23, 36). It was also clear that there was a correlation between the epicenters and areas with unusual winter weather phenomenons– namely, warmer than normal December and January months and low precipitation in January (36, 46). According to a study done by Wimberly et al., “warmer temperatures can lead to larger mosquito populations with a higher proportion of infected mosquitoes” because the “length of the gonotrophic cycle of the mosquito vector and …show more content…
According to a paper by Labeaud et al., there is a significant positive correlation between high risk of human infection and increased fractionation of habitat and/or older housing (26).
Interestingly enough, there is a negative correlation between high risk of human infection and areas of agricultural land, wetland, or forest, which I assumed would induce higher rates of human infection because those areas would breed more mosquitoes and have more abundance of birds (26). Their analysis in Ohio suggested that the highest incidence of WNV occurred at the border of rural-suburban habitats (26). A hypothesized reason for this phenomenon is that environmental fractionation increases diversity and abundance of birds (26). Thus, increases in the fractionation of habitat strongly predict increases in WNV transmission risk (26). However, while Labeaud et al. emphasized that the highest rates of infection were on the borders of the cities and suburbs, their paper did not state whether people were safest from infection in the city or the suburb (26). Ghosh’s study, based in Minnesota, claims that the more distance from
Mosquito Species of Interest
Amongst the mosquito species infected with WNV in Dallas County, the C. quinquefasciatus (southern horse mosquito) was the most prevalent (7, 32). The southern horse mosquito is prevalent in Southern United States as …show more content…
Environmental Determinants: The risk and susceptibility of WNV infection are hypothesized to have both environmental and demographic determinants, although the “exact factors that contributed to this epidemic are unknown” (11, 32). Some environmental factors include, but are not limited to the amount of precipitation and average temperature per month. It is hypothesized that the severity of the 2012 outbreak of WNV was due to the several outbreak states having the “highest average annual temperature and one of the lowest annual precipitations...in over 100 years” (23, 36). It was also clear that there was a correlation between the epicenters and areas with unusual winter weather phenomenons– namely, warmer than normal December and January months and low precipitation in January (36, 46). According to a study done by Wimberly et al., “warmer temperatures can lead to larger mosquito populations with a higher proportion of infected mosquitoes” because the “length of the gonotrophic cycle of the mosquito vector and …show more content…
According to a paper by Labeaud et al., there is a significant positive correlation between high risk of human infection and increased fractionation of habitat and/or older housing (26).
Interestingly enough, there is a negative correlation between high risk of human infection and areas of agricultural land, wetland, or forest, which I assumed would induce higher rates of human infection because those areas would breed more mosquitoes and have more abundance of birds (26). Their analysis in Ohio suggested that the highest incidence of WNV occurred at the border of rural-suburban habitats (26). A hypothesized reason for this phenomenon is that environmental fractionation increases diversity and abundance of birds (26). Thus, increases in the fractionation of habitat strongly predict increases in WNV transmission risk (26). However, while Labeaud et al. emphasized that the highest rates of infection were on the borders of the cities and suburbs, their paper did not state whether people were safest from infection in the city or the suburb (26). Ghosh’s study, based in Minnesota, claims that the more distance from