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Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States
The United States experienced local transmission of West Nile Virus (WNV) for the first time in 1999, and Zika Virus (ZIKV) in 2016. These introductions captured the public’s attention in varying degrees. The research presented here analyzes the disproportional perception of ZIKV risk compared to WN...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8706029/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34959517 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10121562 |
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author | Lozano, Saul Day, Jonathan Ortega, Lilyana Silver, Maggie Connelly, Roxanne |
author_facet | Lozano, Saul Day, Jonathan Ortega, Lilyana Silver, Maggie Connelly, Roxanne |
author_sort | Lozano, Saul |
collection | PubMed |
description | The United States experienced local transmission of West Nile Virus (WNV) for the first time in 1999, and Zika Virus (ZIKV) in 2016. These introductions captured the public’s attention in varying degrees. The research presented here analyzes the disproportional perception of ZIKV risk compared to WNV transmission risk, by the public and vector control personnel. The risk perception of vector control was measured through purposive sampled interviews (24 interviews in 13 states; May 2020–June 2021), while the public’s perception was estimated from news publications (January 2000–December 2020), and Google searches (January 2004–December 2020). Over time, we observed a decrease in the frequency of press reporting and Google searches of both viruses with decreasing annual peaks in the summer. The highest peak of ZIKV news, and searches, surpassed that of WNV. We observed clear differences in the contents of the headlines for both viruses. We propose that the main reason in risk perception differences between the viruses were psychological. Zika infections (mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted) can result in devastating symptoms in fetuses and newborns, observations that frequently appeared in ZIKV-related headlines. Our results highlight the likely influence the news media has on risk perception and the need for public health agencies to play active roles in the conversation, helping disseminate timely and accurate information. Understanding the factors that shape risk perceptions of vector-borne diseases will hopefully lead to better use of resources by providing better guidance. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8706029 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87060292021-12-25 Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States Lozano, Saul Day, Jonathan Ortega, Lilyana Silver, Maggie Connelly, Roxanne Pathogens Article The United States experienced local transmission of West Nile Virus (WNV) for the first time in 1999, and Zika Virus (ZIKV) in 2016. These introductions captured the public’s attention in varying degrees. The research presented here analyzes the disproportional perception of ZIKV risk compared to WNV transmission risk, by the public and vector control personnel. The risk perception of vector control was measured through purposive sampled interviews (24 interviews in 13 states; May 2020–June 2021), while the public’s perception was estimated from news publications (January 2000–December 2020), and Google searches (January 2004–December 2020). Over time, we observed a decrease in the frequency of press reporting and Google searches of both viruses with decreasing annual peaks in the summer. The highest peak of ZIKV news, and searches, surpassed that of WNV. We observed clear differences in the contents of the headlines for both viruses. We propose that the main reason in risk perception differences between the viruses were psychological. Zika infections (mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted) can result in devastating symptoms in fetuses and newborns, observations that frequently appeared in ZIKV-related headlines. Our results highlight the likely influence the news media has on risk perception and the need for public health agencies to play active roles in the conversation, helping disseminate timely and accurate information. Understanding the factors that shape risk perceptions of vector-borne diseases will hopefully lead to better use of resources by providing better guidance. MDPI 2021-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8706029/ /pubmed/34959517 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10121562 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lozano, Saul Day, Jonathan Ortega, Lilyana Silver, Maggie Connelly, Roxanne Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title | Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title_full | Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title_fullStr | Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title_full_unstemmed | Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title_short | Perceived Risk of Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Continental United States |
title_sort | perceived risk of mosquito-borne arboviruses in the continental united states |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8706029/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34959517 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10121562 |
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