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Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas

INTRODUCTION: Although more than one billion people live at risk of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in areas of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the degree to which they burden countries like the U.S. is unclear. Even though many NTDs such as dengue, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease...

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Autores principales: Horney, Jennifer, Goldberg, Daniel, Hammond, Tracy, Stone, Kahler, Smitherman, Seth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29188134
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.93540c6c8c7831670591b0264479269c
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author Horney, Jennifer
Goldberg, Daniel
Hammond, Tracy
Stone, Kahler
Smitherman, Seth
author_facet Horney, Jennifer
Goldberg, Daniel
Hammond, Tracy
Stone, Kahler
Smitherman, Seth
author_sort Horney, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Although more than one billion people live at risk of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in areas of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the degree to which they burden countries like the U.S. is unclear. Even though many NTDs such as dengue, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease are typically not endemic to the U.S., the possibility of their emergence is noteworthy, especially in states like Texas with high levels of poverty, large immigrant populations, geographic proximity to endemic areas, and a climate amenable to the vectors for these diseases. Despite the health threat that emerging NTDs may pose, little is known about the prevalence of risk factors for NTDs in the U.S. METHODS: We tested the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) method to assess the prevalence of risk factors for NTDs in Brazos County, Texas. Results: We found relatively low prevalence of risk factors related to travel (5.2% of respondents visited an endemic area in the previous 3 months); however, few respondents reported adherence to mosquito prevention, such as wearing long sleeves and long pants (14.1%, 95% CI: 13.9,14.4) and repellant containing DEET (13.5%, 95% CI: 13.2,13.7). Between 5.4% and 35.8% of respondents had a visible container (e.g., pet water dishes, flower pots, bird baths) that could support mosquito breeding. DISCUSSION: CASPER findings present public health authorities with potential avenues for implementing health education and other interventions aimed at reducing exposure to risk factors for NTDs among Texas residents.
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spelling pubmed-56934482017-11-28 Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas Horney, Jennifer Goldberg, Daniel Hammond, Tracy Stone, Kahler Smitherman, Seth PLoS Curr Research Article INTRODUCTION: Although more than one billion people live at risk of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in areas of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the degree to which they burden countries like the U.S. is unclear. Even though many NTDs such as dengue, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease are typically not endemic to the U.S., the possibility of their emergence is noteworthy, especially in states like Texas with high levels of poverty, large immigrant populations, geographic proximity to endemic areas, and a climate amenable to the vectors for these diseases. Despite the health threat that emerging NTDs may pose, little is known about the prevalence of risk factors for NTDs in the U.S. METHODS: We tested the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) method to assess the prevalence of risk factors for NTDs in Brazos County, Texas. Results: We found relatively low prevalence of risk factors related to travel (5.2% of respondents visited an endemic area in the previous 3 months); however, few respondents reported adherence to mosquito prevention, such as wearing long sleeves and long pants (14.1%, 95% CI: 13.9,14.4) and repellant containing DEET (13.5%, 95% CI: 13.2,13.7). Between 5.4% and 35.8% of respondents had a visible container (e.g., pet water dishes, flower pots, bird baths) that could support mosquito breeding. DISCUSSION: CASPER findings present public health authorities with potential avenues for implementing health education and other interventions aimed at reducing exposure to risk factors for NTDs among Texas residents. Public Library of Science 2017-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5693448/ /pubmed/29188134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.93540c6c8c7831670591b0264479269c Text en © 2017 Horney, Goldberg, Hammond, Stone, Smitherman, et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Horney, Jennifer
Goldberg, Daniel
Hammond, Tracy
Stone, Kahler
Smitherman, Seth
Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title_full Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title_fullStr Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title_short Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Brazos County, Texas
title_sort assessing the prevalence of risk factors for neglected tropical diseases in brazos county, texas
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29188134
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.93540c6c8c7831670591b0264479269c
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