How to translate text using browser tools
7 April 2021 Environmental Correlates of Lyme Disease Emergence in Southwest Virginia, 2005–2014
Paul M. Lantos, Jean Tsao, Mark Janko, Ali Arab, Michael E. von Fricken, Paul G. Auwaerter, Lise E. Nigrovic, Vance Fowler, Felicia Ruffin, David Gaines, James Broyhill, Jennifer Swenson
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in North America. Though human infection is mostly transmitted in a limited geography, the range has expanded in recent years. One notable area of recent expansion is in the mountainous region of southwestern Virginia. The ecological factors that facilitate or constrain the range of human Lyme disease in this region remain uncertain. To evaluate this further, we obtained ecological data, including remotely sensed data on forest structure and vegetation, weather data, and elevation. These data were aggregated within the census block groups of a 9,153 km2 area around the cities of Blacksburg and Roanoke, VA, an area with heterogeneous Lyme disease transmission. In this geographic area, 755 individuals were reported to have Lyme disease in the 10 yr from 2006 to 2015, and these cases were aggregated by block group. A zero-inflated negative binomial model was used to evaluate which environmental variables influenced the abundance of Lyme disease cases. Higher elevation and higher vegetation density had the greatest effect size on the abundance of Lyme disease. Measures of forest edge, forest integrity, temperature, and humidity were not associated with Lyme disease cases. Future southward expansion of Lyme disease into the southeastern states may be most likely in ecologically similar mountainous areas.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Paul M. Lantos, Jean Tsao, Mark Janko, Ali Arab, Michael E. von Fricken, Paul G. Auwaerter, Lise E. Nigrovic, Vance Fowler, Felicia Ruffin, David Gaines, James Broyhill, and Jennifer Swenson "Environmental Correlates of Lyme Disease Emergence in Southwest Virginia, 2005–2014," Journal of Medical Entomology 58(4), 1680-1685, (7 April 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjab038
Received: 15 September 2020; Accepted: 20 February 2021; Published: 7 April 2021
JOURNAL ARTICLE
6 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
Bayesian statistics
epidemiology
Geographic Information System
Lyme disease
remote sensing
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top