Citizen Science: A Gateway for Innovation in Disease-Carrying Mosquito Management?

Bartumeus, Frederic; Oltra, Aitana; Palmer, John R.B.

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2018.04.010

Cited by 43 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…One promising tool is the use of mobile phones to support vector control efforts [21]. These devices are widely used and continuously further developed for several health purposes [22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of mobile phones for the prevention and control of arboviral diseases: a scoping review

et al. 2021

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Background The rapid expansion of dengue, Zika and chikungunya with large scale outbreaks are an increasing public health concern in many countries. Additionally, the recent coronavirus pandemic urged the need to get connected for fast information transfer and exchange. As response, health programmes have -among other interventions- incorporated digital tools such as mobile phones for supporting the control and prevention of infectious diseases. However, little is known about the benefits of mobile phone technology in terms of input, process and outcome dimensions. The purpose of this scoping review is to analyse the evidence of the use of mobile phones as an intervention tool regarding the performance, acceptance, usability, feasibility, cost and effectiveness in dengue, Zika and chikungunya control programmes. Methods We conducted a scoping review of studies and reports by systematically searching: i) electronic databases (PubMed, PLOS ONE, PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease, LILACS, WHOLIS, ScienceDirect and Google scholar), ii) grey literature, using Google web and iii) documents in the list of references of the selected papers. Selected studies were categorized using a pre-determined data extraction form. Finally, a narrative summary of the evidence related to general characteristics of available mobile health tools and outcomes was produced. Results The systematic literature search identified 1289 records, 32 of which met the inclusion criteria and 4 records from the reference lists. A total of 36 studies were included coming from twenty different countries. Five mobile phone services were identified in this review: mobile applications (n = 18), short message services (n=7), camera phone (n = 6), mobile phone tracking data (n = 4), and simple mobile communication (n = 1). Mobile phones were used for surveillance, prevention, diagnosis, and communication demonstrating good performance, acceptance and usability by users, as well as feasibility of mobile phone under real life conditions and effectiveness in terms of contributing to a reduction of vectors/ disease and improving users-oriented behaviour changes. It can be concluded that there are benefits for using mobile phones in the fight against arboviral diseases as well as other epidemic diseases. Further studies particularly on acceptance, cost and effectiveness at scale are recommended.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of mobile phones for the prevention and control of arboviral diseases: a scoping review

et al. 2021

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“…In parallel to the development of new technologies of mosquito modification, we are also witnessing the emergence of innovative forms of citizen science specifically tailored to vector control challenges. Mobile communication technologies and digital platforms enlarge the potential pool of participants in mosquito surveillance efforts by enabling residents to gather and share entomologically relevant data [8] . These citizen science platforms create new channels of communication between mosquito control specialists and community members and can be an effective means of increasing the level of alert vis-à-vis endemic or emerging mosquito-borne diseases.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sustainable innovation in vector control requires strong partnerships with communities

et al. 2019

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“…Beyond the national scale, as highlighted by Bartumeus et al [36] "the challenge is to exploit the inherently scalable nature of Internet networked citizen science to offer an open global toolkit that can aid in the fight against mosquito at the global scale". This would imply the generation of data and method standards across different projects, as well as the development of a modular project where code and data can be easily shared and reused in other countries, thus facilitating structural interoperability and shared global knowledge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ZanzaMapp: A Scalable Citizen Science Tool to Monitor Perception of Mosquito Abundance and Nuisance in Italy and Beyond

Caputo

Manica

Filipponi

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Mosquitoes represent a considerable nuisance and are actual/potential vectors of human diseases in Europe. Costly and labour-intensive entomological monitoring is needed to correct planning of interventions aimed at reducing nuisance and the risk of pathogen transmission. The widespread availability of mobile phones and of massive Internet connections opens the way to the contribution of citizen in complementing entomological monitoring. ZanzaMapp is the first mobile “mosquito” application for smartphones specifically designed to assess citizens’ perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy. Differently from other applications targeting mosquitoes, ZanzaMapp prioritizes the number of records over their scientific authentication by requesting users to answer four simple questions on perceived mosquito presence/abundance/nuisance and geo-localizing the records. The paper analyses 36,867 ZanzaMapp records sent by 13,669 devices from 2016 to 2018 and discusses the results with reference to either citizens’ exploitation and appreciation of the app and to the consistency of the results obtained with the known biology of main mosquito species in Italy. In addition, we provide a first small-scale validation of ZanzaMapp data as predictors of Aedes albopictus biting females and examples of spatial analyses and maps which could be exploited by public institutions and administrations involved in mosquito and mosquito-borne pathogen monitoring and control.

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Citizen Science: A Gateway for Innovation in Disease-Carrying Mosquito Management?

Abstract: Traditional methods for tracking disease-carrying mosquitoes are hitting budget constraints as the scales over which they must be implemented grow exponentially. Citizen science offers a novel solution to this problem but requires new models of innovation in the public health sector.

Cited by 43 publications

References 11 publications

The use of mobile phones for the prevention and control of arboviral diseases: a scoping review

The use of mobile phones for the prevention and control of arboviral diseases: a scoping review

Sustainable innovation in vector control requires strong partnerships with communities

ZanzaMapp: A Scalable Citizen Science Tool to Monitor Perception of Mosquito Abundance and Nuisance in Italy and Beyond

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