Using volunteered observations to map human exposure to ticks.
Sci Rep
; 8(1): 15435, 2018 10 18.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30337654
ABSTRACT
Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most prevalent tick-borne disease in Europe and its incidence has steadily increased over the last two decades. In the Netherlands alone, more than 20,000 citizens are affected by LB each year. Because of this, two Dutch citizen science projects were started to monitor tick bites. Both projects have collected nearly 50,000 geo-located tick bite reports over the period 2006-2016. The number of tick bite reports per area unit is a proxy of tick bite risk. This risk can also be modelled as the result of the interaction of hazard (e.g. tick activity) and human exposure (e.g. outdoor recreational activities). Multiple studies have focused on quantifying tick hazard. However, quantifying human exposure is a harder task. In this work, we make a first step to map human exposure to ticks by combining tick bite reports with a tick hazard model. Our results show human exposure to tick bites in all forested areas of the Netherlands. This information could facilitate the cooperation between public health specialists and forest managers to create better mitigation campaigns for tick-borne diseases, and it could also support the design of improved plans for ecosystem management.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Carrapatos
/
Doença de Lyme
/
Doenças Transmitidas por Carrapatos
/
Mapeamento Geográfico
/
Picadas de Carrapatos
/
Modelos Teóricos
Tipo de estudo:
Incidence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
/
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sci Rep
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article