Climate, human behaviour or environment: individual-based modelling of Campylobacter seasonality and strategies to reduce disease burden

Rushton, Stephen, Sanderson, Roy, Diggle, Peter John, Shirley, Mark, Blain, Alasdair, Lake, Iain ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4407-5357, Maas, James, Reid, William, Hardstaff, Jo, Williams, Nicola, Jones, Natalia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4025-2985, Rigby, Daniel, Strachan, Norval J. C., Forbes, Ken, Hunter, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5608-6144, Humphrey, Thomas J. and O'Brien, Sarah (2019) Climate, human behaviour or environment: individual-based modelling of Campylobacter seasonality and strategies to reduce disease burden. Journal of Translational Medicine, 17. ISSN 1479-5876

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Abstract

Background: With over 800 million cases globally, campylobacteriosis is a major cause of food borne disease. In temperate climates incidence is highly seasonal but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, making human disease control difficult. We hypothesised that observed disease patterns reflect complex interactions between weather, patterns of human risk behaviour, immune status and level of food contamination. Only by understanding these can we find effective interventions. Methods: We analysed trends in human Campylobacter cases in NE England from 2004-2009, investigating the associations between different risk factors and disease using time-series models. We then developed an individual-based (IB) model of risk behaviour, human immunological responses to infection and environmental contamination driven by weather and land use. We parameterised the IB model for NE England and compared outputs to observed numbers of reported cases each month in the population in 2004-2009. Finally, we used it to investigate different community level disease reduction strategies.Results: Risk behaviours like countryside visits (t=3.665, P<0.001 and t= -2.187, P=0.029 for temperature and rainfall respectively), and consumption of barbecued food were strongly associated with weather, (t=3.219, P=0.002 and t=2.015 P=0.045 for weekly average temperature and average maximum temperature respectively) and also rain (t=2.254, P=0.02527). This suggests that the effect of weather was indirect, acting through changes in risk behaviour. The seasonal pattern of cases predicted by the IB model was significantly related to observed patterns (r=0.72, P<0.001) indicating that simulating risk behaviour could produce the observed seasonal patterns of cases. A vaccination strategy providing short-term immunity was more effective than educational interventions to modify human risk behaviour. Extending immunity to one year from 20 days reduced disease burden by an order of magnitude (from 2412-2414 to 203-309 cases per 50,000 person-years). Conclusion: This is the first interdisciplinary study to integrate environment, risk behaviour, socio-demographics and immunology to model Campylobacter infection, including pathways to mitigation. We conclude that vaccination is likely to be the best route for intervening against campylobacteriosis despite the technical problems associated with understanding both the underlying human immunology and genetic variation in the pathogen, and the likely cost of vaccine development.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 3 - good health and well-being,sdg 15 - life on land ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Economics
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023)
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 24 Jan 2019 14:30
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2023 02:21
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69673
DOI: 10.1186/s12967-019-1781-y

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