Low parasite connectivity among three malaria hotspots in Thailand

Abstract

Identifying sources and sinks of malaria transmission is critical for designing effective intervention strategies particularly as countries approach elimination. The number of malaria cases in Thailand decreased 90% between 2012 and 2020, yet elimination has remained a major public health challenge with persistent transmission foci and ongoing importation. There are three main hotspots of malaria transmission in Thailand: Ubon Ratchathani and Sisaket in the Northeast; Tak in the West; and Yala in the South. However, the degree to which these hotspots are connected via travel and importation has not been well characterized. Here, we develop a metapopulation model parameterized by mobile phone call detail record data to estimate parasite flow among these regions. We show that parasite connectivity among these regions was limited, and that each of these provinces independently drove the malaria transmission in nearby provinces. Overall, our results suggest that due to the low probability of domestic importation between the transmission hotspots, control and elimination strategies can be considered separately for each region.

Seroepidemiological surveillance, community perceptions and associated risk factors of malaria exposure among forest-goers in Northeastern Thailand

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Using call detail records to determine mobility patterns of different socio-demographic groups in the western area of Sierra Leone during early COVID-19 crisis

“…Researchers applied these two approaches to national migration (Lai et al, 2019), understand people’s transportation modes (Iqbal et al, 2014), and estimate efficiency of public space use (Noyman et al, 2019). Researchers also used CDR to detect the spread of infectious diseases such as dengue (Wesolowski et al, 2015), Ebola (Danquah et al, 2019), malaria (Chang et al, 2021), and the most recent emergency, COVID-19 pandemic (Oliver et al, 2020).…”

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