Browsing by Subject "West Nile Virus"
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Item Mosquitoes and the urban environment : towards establishing a more sustainable planning framework for the control of mosquitoes and the health threats they may pose(2014-05) Fox-Baker, Daniel; Dooling, Sarah; Jha, ShaleneThis paper delves into the issue of mosquito control strategies through an examination of present day issues and evaluates literature on administrative, technical, regulatory and professional practices involved in reducing exposure to mosquito borne diseases and how are their strategies tailored to specific contexts. The main issue that this paper will attempt to address is the development of a more sustainable framework for the control of mosquitoes and their respective health threats. In order to accomplish this, an examination is conducted with stakeholders involved in public health and mosquito control at local, state and national levels who can comment on their activities with authority. A list of interview questions tailored to different groups of stakeholders is utilized with the intent of eliciting data that answer to my research questions. Through this process, I am able to examine the current processes that are in use within such organizations and determine whether they are efficient, forward thinking and effective in addressing the myriad issues involved in proper mosquito control when compared to current literature on the subject. It is expected that through this paper, a better understanding of the current mosquito control processes within L.A. and Houston will be developed resulting in the creation of better practices as a direct result of the investigation.Item Optimized mosquito surveillance in St. Tammany's Parish, LA(2014-05-02) Patel, Krishna; Starbird, MichaelSince its emergence in the United States in 1999, West Nile Virus has caused hundreds of deaths and has been spreading geographically. In order to efficiently control West Nile Virus outbreaks, it is necessary to monitor the spread of its primary mosquito vectors. This report contains a new computational method to optimize the surveillance methods of West Nile Virus vectors at St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Based on multiple years of data, the distribution of mosquito density was thoroughly anazlyed. The results include the identification of multi-year patterns and high-risk zones for West Nile Virus in the parish and correlations in mosquito prevalence across these zones. A spatial statistical model was developed for the surveillance network regarding the West Nile Virus vector Culex Quinquefasciatus. An approximation algorithm was applied to determine the optimal location of surveillance sites that provide the most informative locations for Culex Quinquefasciatus surveillance in the parish. The results of this paper indicate that a greedy algorithm, thus far, is the best possible solution to determine the optimal surveillance sites. In its current state, the algorithm is simplified as the most informative locations as those that decrease the variance the most. An improved algorithm involving more variables such as rainfall will enhance the ability to determine an optimal mosquito surveillance network. Optimizing mosquito surveillance methods can improve the ability to monitor mosquito vectors and significantly reduce costs.