1. Rift Valley fever in West Africa: the role of space in endemicity.
- Author
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Favier, Charly, Chalvet-Monfray, Karine, Sabatier, Philippe, Lancelot, Renaud, Fontenille, Didier, and Dubois, Marc A.
- Subjects
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RIFT Valley fever , *ARBOVIRUS diseases , *ETIOLOGY of diseases , *MOSQUITO vectors , *INFECTIOUS disease transmission , *VIRAL hepatitis - Abstract
Rift Valley fever is an endemic vector-borne disease in West Africa, which mainly affects domestic ruminants and occasionally humans. The aetiological mechanisms of its endemicity remain under debate. We used a simple spatially explicit model to assess the possibility of endemicity without wild animals providing a permanent virus reservoir. Our model takes into account the vertical transmission in some mosquito species, the rainfall-driven emergence of their eggs and local and distant contacts because of herd migration. Endemicity without such a permanent virus reservoir would be impossible in a single site except when there is a strictly periodic rainfall pattern; but it would be possible when there are herd movements and sufficient inter-site variability in rainfall, which drives mosquito emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
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