Modelling H5N1 in Bangladesh across spatial scales: model complexity and zoonotic transmission risk

Publication date: Available online 21 February 2017 Source:Epidemics Author(s): Edward M. Hill, Thomas House, Madhur S. Dhingra, Wantanee Kalpravidh, Subhash Morzaria, Muzaffar G. Osmani, Mat Yamage, Xiangming Xiao, Marius Gilbert, Michael J. Tildesley Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 remains a persistent public health threat, capable of causing infection in humans with a high mortality rate while simultaneously negatively impacting the livestock industry. A central question is to determine regions that are likely sources of newly emerging influenza strains with pandemic causing potential. A suitable candidate is Bangladesh, being one of the most densely populated countries in the world and having an intensifying farming system. It is therefore vital to establish the key factors, specific to Bangladesh, that enable both continued transmission within poultry and spillover across the human-animal interface. We apply a modelling framework to H5N1 epidemics in the Dhaka region of Bangladesh, occurring from 2007 onwards, that resulted in large outbreaks in the poultry sector and a limited number of confirmed human cases. This model consisted of separate poultry transmission and zoonotic transmission components. Utilising poultry farm spatial and population information a set of competing nested models of varying complexity were fitted to the observed case data, with parameter inference carried out using Bayesian methodology and goodness-of-fit verified by stochast...
Source: Epidemics - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research