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Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment

BACKGROUND: Human movement is likely an important risk factor for environmentally-transmitted pathogens. While epidemiologic studies have traditionally focused on household risk factors, individual movement data could provide critical additional information about risk of exposure to such pathogens....

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Autores principales: Owers, Katharine A., Odetunde, Juliana, de Matos, Rosan Barbosa, Sacramento, Gielson, Carvalho, Mayara, Nery, Nivison, Costa, Federico, Reis, Mitermayer G., Childs, James E., Hagan, José E., Diggle, Peter J., Ko, Albert I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6143277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30169513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006752
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author Owers, Katharine A.
Odetunde, Juliana
de Matos, Rosan Barbosa
Sacramento, Gielson
Carvalho, Mayara
Nery, Nivison
Costa, Federico
Reis, Mitermayer G.
Childs, James E.
Hagan, José E.
Diggle, Peter J.
Ko, Albert I.
author_facet Owers, Katharine A.
Odetunde, Juliana
de Matos, Rosan Barbosa
Sacramento, Gielson
Carvalho, Mayara
Nery, Nivison
Costa, Federico
Reis, Mitermayer G.
Childs, James E.
Hagan, José E.
Diggle, Peter J.
Ko, Albert I.
author_sort Owers, Katharine A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Human movement is likely an important risk factor for environmentally-transmitted pathogens. While epidemiologic studies have traditionally focused on household risk factors, individual movement data could provide critical additional information about risk of exposure to such pathogens. We conducted global positioning system (GPS) tracking of urban slum residents to quantify their fine-scale movement patterns and evaluate their exposures to environmental sources of leptospirosis transmission. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We recruited participants from an ongoing cohort study in an urban slum in Brazil and tracked them for 24 hours at 30-second intervals. Among 172 subjects asked to participate in this cross-sectional study, 130 agreed to participate and 109 had good quality data and were included in analyses. The majority of recorded locations were near participant residences (87.7% within 50 meters of the house), regardless of age or gender. Similarly, exposure to environmental sources of leptospirosis transmission did not vary by age or gender. However, males, who have higher infection rates, visited a significantly larger area during the 24-hour period than did females (34,549m(2) versus 22,733m(2), p = 0.005). Four male participants had serologic evidence of Leptospira infection during the study period. These individuals had significantly larger activity spaces than uninfected males (61,310m(2) vs 31,575m(2), p = 0.006) and elevated exposure to rodent activity (p = 0.046) and trash deposits (p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: GPS tracking was an effective tool for quantifying individual mobility in the complex urban slum environment and identifying risk exposures associated with that movement. This study suggests that in addition to source reduction, barrier interventions that reduce contact with transmission sources as slum residents move within their communities may be a useful prevention strategy for leptospirosis.
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spelling pubmed-61432772018-10-19 Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment Owers, Katharine A. Odetunde, Juliana de Matos, Rosan Barbosa Sacramento, Gielson Carvalho, Mayara Nery, Nivison Costa, Federico Reis, Mitermayer G. Childs, James E. Hagan, José E. Diggle, Peter J. Ko, Albert I. PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: Human movement is likely an important risk factor for environmentally-transmitted pathogens. While epidemiologic studies have traditionally focused on household risk factors, individual movement data could provide critical additional information about risk of exposure to such pathogens. We conducted global positioning system (GPS) tracking of urban slum residents to quantify their fine-scale movement patterns and evaluate their exposures to environmental sources of leptospirosis transmission. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We recruited participants from an ongoing cohort study in an urban slum in Brazil and tracked them for 24 hours at 30-second intervals. Among 172 subjects asked to participate in this cross-sectional study, 130 agreed to participate and 109 had good quality data and were included in analyses. The majority of recorded locations were near participant residences (87.7% within 50 meters of the house), regardless of age or gender. Similarly, exposure to environmental sources of leptospirosis transmission did not vary by age or gender. However, males, who have higher infection rates, visited a significantly larger area during the 24-hour period than did females (34,549m(2) versus 22,733m(2), p = 0.005). Four male participants had serologic evidence of Leptospira infection during the study period. These individuals had significantly larger activity spaces than uninfected males (61,310m(2) vs 31,575m(2), p = 0.006) and elevated exposure to rodent activity (p = 0.046) and trash deposits (p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: GPS tracking was an effective tool for quantifying individual mobility in the complex urban slum environment and identifying risk exposures associated with that movement. This study suggests that in addition to source reduction, barrier interventions that reduce contact with transmission sources as slum residents move within their communities may be a useful prevention strategy for leptospirosis. Public Library of Science 2018-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC6143277/ /pubmed/30169513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006752 Text en © 2018 Owers 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
Owers, Katharine A.
Odetunde, Juliana
de Matos, Rosan Barbosa
Sacramento, Gielson
Carvalho, Mayara
Nery, Nivison
Costa, Federico
Reis, Mitermayer G.
Childs, James E.
Hagan, José E.
Diggle, Peter J.
Ko, Albert I.
Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title_full Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title_fullStr Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title_full_unstemmed Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title_short Fine-scale GPS tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
title_sort fine-scale gps tracking to quantify human movement patterns and exposure to leptospires in the urban slum environment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6143277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30169513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006752
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