Institute of Tropical Medicine
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Veronique Dermauw is a scientific fellow (postdoc) at the Department of Biomedical Sciences (Unit of Veterinary Helminthology) of the Institute of Tropical Medicine. She had PhD degree in Veterinary Sciences, an MSc in Veterinary Medicine as well as an MSc in Statistical Data Analysis. Her work focusses on the epidemiology of zoonotic helminth and foodborne infections of veterinary and public health importance (e.g., taeniasis/cysticercosis, echinococcosis, fascioliasis). She is involved in several research and capacity strengthening projects in the South. Finally, she is the ITM director of the MSc Global One Health, that focusses on interactions between human, animal and environmental health, following the One Health approach and is organized collaboratively between ITM and the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

01. Living with parasites

PRE-RECORDED: GEOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF ACTIVE CYSTICERCOSIS: RESULTS OF A LARGE-SCALE STUDY IN 60 VILLAGES IN BURKINA FASO (ID 1316)

Session Type
01. Living with parasites
Date
08/23/2022
Session Time
17:00 - 18:30
Room
Hall B3.M5+6
Lecture Time
17:45 - 17:50
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Pre-Recorded Presentation
Onsite or Pre-Recorded
Pre-Recorded

Abstract

Introduction

Cysticercosis (CC) is a neglected tropical disease caused by Taenia solium which has been observed to cluster spatially. Geostatistical models can predict outcome prevalence at unsampled locations, and thus guide prevention and control strategies. The goal of this study was to fit, for the first time, a geostatistical model to human CC data.

Methods

Baseline data from a randomized control trial (EFECAB) conducted in 60 villages in Burkina Faso were used. A generalized linear geostatistical model (GLGM) was run, with active human CC (B158/B60 Ag-ELISA) as outcome and a set of environmental variables linked with infection transmission and spread as explanatory variables for the spatial distribution.

Results

The final GLGM retained precipitation, distance to the nearest river and night land temperatures as predictors for active human CC. The range of spatial correlation was estimated at 45 meters for the participant-level data, while it was 28.2 km using the village-level data. The prediction maps unravelled large areas with human CC prevalence estimates of at least 4% in the south-east, extreme south, and north-west of the study area.

Conclusions

This study shows the merits of geostatistical models for identifying target areas for intervention. Future studies should improve sampling strategies to ensure appropriate characterisation of the spatial variability.

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