ABSTRACT
The rapid pace of urbanization makes it imperative that we better understand the influence of climate forcing on urban malaria transmission. Despite extensive study of temperature effects in vector-borne infections in general, consideration of relative humidity remains limited. With process-based dynamical models informed by almost two decades of monthly surveillance data, we address the role of relative humidity in the interannual variability of epidemic malaria in two semi-arid cities of India. We show a strong and significant effect of humidity during the pre-transmission season on malaria burden in coastal Surat and more arid inland Ahmedabad. Simulations of the climate-driven transmission model with the MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimates) of the parameters retrospectively capture the observed variability of disease incidence, and also prospectively predict that of 'out-of-fit' cases in more recent years, with high accuracy. Our findings indicate that relative humidity is a critical factor in the spread of urban malaria and potentially other vector-borne epidemics, and that climate change and lack of hydrological planning in cities might jeopardize malaria elimination efforts.
Subject(s)
Humidity , Malaria/epidemiology , Malaria/transmission , Cities/epidemiology , Climate Change , Ecology , Epidemics , Humans , Incidence , India/epidemiology , Malaria, Falciparum/transmission , Retrospective Studies , Seasons , Temperature , UrbanizationABSTRACT
La distocia en reptiles es una patología caracterizada por la dificultad de llevar a cabo el proceso de parto u ovoposición, la literatura es escasa en lo que concierne a distocias en serpientes, por tanto, existen vacíos frente a este tema. Se describe el caso de una serpiente Coelognathus flavolineatus de 10 años de edad que presentaba dificultad en la ovoposición. Fueron evaluados parámetros sanguíneos, radiográficos y ecográficos, así como cultivo bacteriano y antibiograma, con el fin de identificar las posibles causas y complicaciones que desencadenaron el proceso de distocia en la serpiente. En cuanto al tratamiento de la distocia, se realizó una punción aspirativa del huevo a través de la cloaca extrayéndose su contenido, posteriormente se procedió a extraer los restos y se tomaron hisopados de la mucosa del tracto reproductivo. Las muestras seleccionadas fueron sometidas a cultivo, luego de lo cual, se aislaron cepas de Salmonella del grupo F-67 y Escherichia coli, y en menor proporción cepas de Morganella morganii, Pseudomona aeruginosa, Flavobacterium y Proteus, las cuales se atribuyen como agentes infecciosos involucrados en la distocia en la serpiente.
Dystocia in reptiles is a disease characterized by the difficulty of carrying out the process of calving or oviposition, literature is scarce in regard to dystocia in snakes, therefore, there are unsolved questions with this issue. A case of a snake Coelognathus flavolineatus of 10 years of age that had difficulty in the oviposition is described. The blood, radiographic and ultrasound parameters were evaluated as well as bacterial culture and antibiogram, in order to identify the possible causes and complications that the dystocia process causes in the snake. In regard to the treatment of dystocia, an aspiration of the egg through the cloaca was carried out. Its content was pulled out, then we proceeded to remove the remains and swabs were taken of the mucosa of the reproductive tract. The selected samples were tested by cultivation, where Salmonella was isolated from the F-67 group and Escherichia coli, and to a smaller proportion of strains Morganella morganii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Flavobacterium and Proteus, attributed as infectious agents involved in the dystocia in the snake.
