Susceptibility to organophosphates pesticides and the development of infectious-contagious respiratory diseases

Publication date: Available online 20 December 2019Source: Journal of Theoretical BiologyAuthor(s): J.P. Gutiérrez-Jara, F.D. Córdova-Lepe, M.T. Muñoz-Quezada, G. ChowellAbstractIn this paper we develop an SIRS compartmental model to investigate the dynamic interplay between pesticide intoxication and the spread of infectious-contagious respiratory diseases. We are particularly interested in investigating three levels of genetic susceptibility to the toxic. The genotypic distribution, corresponding to the Q and R alleles, is proposed and parameterized according to ethnic variation using real population data from published studies. We then use the mathematical models to illustrate the impact of this distribution on the spread of hypothetical influenza-like respiratory disease in a population exposed to the organophosphate pesticide. In this context, we show how an initial basic reproductive number below the epidemic threshold of 1.0 could be enhanced to support epidemic outbreaks in agricultural populations that employ chlorpyrifos pesticides. We further illustrate our modeling framework to study the effect of ethnic group variation in Singapore (Malay, Indian and Chinese) using genetic distribution data from published studies.
Source: Journal of Theoretical Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research