Epidemiological and ecological determinants of Zika virus transmission in an urban setting

  1. José Lourenço  Is a corresponding author
  2. Maricelia Maia de Lima
  3. Nuno Rodrigues Faria
  4. Andrew Walker
  5. Moritz UG Kraemer
  6. Christian Julian Villabona-Arenas
  7. Ben Lambert
  8. Erenilde Marques de Cerqueira
  9. Oliver G Pybus
  10. Luiz CJ Alcantara
  11. Mario Recker
  1. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
  2. FIOCRUZ, Brazil
  3. Université de Montpellier, France
  4. Centre of PostGraduation in Collective Health, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil
  5. University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Zika virus has emerged as a global public health concern. Its rapid geographic expansion is attributed to the success of Aedes mosquito vectors, but local epidemiological drivers are still poorly understood. Feira de Santana played a pivotal role in the Chikungunya epidemic in Brazil and was one of the first urban centres to report Zika infections. Using a climate-driven transmission model and notified Zika case data, we show that a low observation rate and high vectorial capacity translated into a significant attack rate during the 2015 outbreak, with a subsequent decline in 2016 and fade-out in 2017 due to herd-immunity. We find a potential Zika-related, low risk for microcephaly per pregnancy, but with significant public health impact given high attack rates. The balance between the loss of herd-immunity and viral re-importation will dictate future transmission potential of in this urban setting.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. José Lourenço

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    jose.lourenco@zoo.ox.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9318-2581
  2. Maricelia Maia de Lima

    Laboratory of Haematology, Genetics and Computational Biology, FIOCRUZ, Salvador, Brazil
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Nuno Rodrigues Faria

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8839-2798
  4. Andrew Walker

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Moritz UG Kraemer

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8838-7147
  6. Christian Julian Villabona-Arenas

    Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMI 233, INSERM U1175, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9928-3968
  7. Ben Lambert

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Erenilde Marques de Cerqueira

    Department of Health, Centre of PostGraduation in Collective Health, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Oliver G Pybus

    Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Luiz CJ Alcantara

    Laboratory of Haematology, Genetics and Computational Biology, FIOCRUZ, Salvador, Brazil
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Mario Recker

    Centre for Mathematics and the Environment, University of Exeter, Penryn, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9489-1315

Funding

European Research Council (614725-PATHPHYLODYN)

  • Oliver G Pybus

Royal Society

  • Mario Recker

Wellcome Trust & Royal Society (204311/Z/16/Z)

  • Nuno Rodrigues Faria

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  • Ben Lambert

European Research Council (268904 - DIVERSITY)

  • José Lourenço
  • Andrew Walker

International Development Emerging Pandemic Threats Program-2 (AID-OAA-A-14-00102)

  • Moritz UG Kraemer

Labex EpiGenMed (ANR-10-LABX-12-01)

  • Christian Julian Villabona-Arenas

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2017, Lourenço et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. José Lourenço
  2. Maricelia Maia de Lima
  3. Nuno Rodrigues Faria
  4. Andrew Walker
  5. Moritz UG Kraemer
  6. Christian Julian Villabona-Arenas
  7. Ben Lambert
  8. Erenilde Marques de Cerqueira
  9. Oliver G Pybus
  10. Luiz CJ Alcantara
  11. Mario Recker
(2017)
Epidemiological and ecological determinants of Zika virus transmission in an urban setting
eLife 6:e29820.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29820

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29820

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    Background:

    Biological aging exhibits heterogeneity across multi-organ systems. However, it remains unclear how is lifestyle associated with overall and organ-specific aging and which factors contribute most in Southwest China.

    Methods:

    This study involved 8396 participants who completed two surveys from the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort (CMEC) study. The healthy lifestyle index (HLI) was developed using five lifestyle factors: smoking, alcohol, diet, exercise, and sleep. The comprehensive and organ-specific biological ages (BAs) were calculated using the Klemera–Doubal method based on longitudinal clinical laboratory measurements, and validation were conducted to select BA reflecting related diseases. Fixed effects model was used to examine the associations between HLI or its components and the acceleration of validated BAs. We further evaluated the relative contribution of lifestyle components to comprehension and organ systems BAs using quantile G-computation.

    Results:

    About two-thirds of participants changed HLI scores between surveys. After validation, three organ-specific BAs (the cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and liver BAs) were identified as reflective of specific diseases and included in further analyses with the comprehensive BA. The health alterations in HLI showed a protective association with the acceleration of all BAs, with a mean shift of –0.19 (95% CI −0.34, –0.03) in the comprehensive BA acceleration. Diet and smoking were the major contributors to overall negative associations of five lifestyle factors, with the comprehensive BA and metabolic BA accounting for 24% and 55% respectively.

    Conclusions:

    Healthy lifestyle changes were inversely related to comprehensive and organ-specific biological aging in Southwest China, with diet and smoking contributing most to comprehensive and metabolic BA separately. Our findings highlight the potential of lifestyle interventions to decelerate aging and identify intervention targets to limit organ-specific aging in less-developed regions.

    Funding:

    This work was primarily supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82273740) and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province, Grant No. 2024NSFSC0552). The CMEC study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0907305, 2017YFC0907300). The sponsors had no role in the design, analysis, interpretation, or writing of this article.