Scrub Typhus Incidence Modeling with Meteorological Factors in South Korea

Kwak, Jaewon; Kim, Soojun; Kim, Gilho; Singh, Vijay P.; Hong, Seungjin; Kim, Hung Soo

doi:10.3390/ijerph120707254

Cited by 34 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The number of patients has increased to around 2,000 per year since 2001, exceeding 10,000 in 2013, and approximately 10-20 deaths have been recorded per year (Lee et al 2015;; Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2018). Similar trends have been observed in surrounding countries, such as China, Japan, and Taiwan (Ogawa et al 2002;Cao et al 2006;Lee et al 2006;Bang et al 2008;Sun et al 2017); as the incidence of Tsutsugamushi disease is closely related to climatic factors (temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind) (Kwak et al 2015), this trend may be a result of global climate change (Ogden 2017). As part of the prevention measures to reduce the number of cases of Tsutsugamushi disease, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have implemented nationwide surveillance of the vector chigger mites and their rodent hosts, besides collecting a wide range of information on these animals.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…); as the incidence of Tsutsugamushi disease is closely related to climatic factors (temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind) (Kwak et al . ), this trend may be a result of global climate change (Ogden ). As part of the prevention measures to reduce the number of cases of Tsutsugamushi disease, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have implemented nationwide surveillance of the vector chigger mites and their rodent hosts, besides collecting a wide range of information on these animals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Occurrence rates of wild rodent hosts and chigger mites and the infection rate ofOrientia tsutsugamushiin the central region of South Korea from 2015 to 2018

Choi

Kim

et al. 2019

Entomological Research

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Outbreaks of vector‐borne diseases are dramatically increasing because of climate change, consequently increasing the importance of surveillance of endemic disease vectors. In this study, we surveyed chigger mites, vectors for Orientia tsutsugamushi—the bacteria that causes Tsutsugamushi disease—, and their rodent hosts in Gimcheon, central South Korea, in 2015–2018. A total of 225 rodents were collected, with trap rate and percentage of rodents infected by chigger mites of 9.8 and 72.4%, respectively. Six species of rodents from five genera were collected, the most common rodent being Apodemus agrarius (n = 153, infection rate = 90.8%). The highest number of rodents was collected in spring (trap rate = 10.3), but the rate of infected rodents was higher in fall (81.5%) than in spring (61.3%). Trap rate was highest for bank near waterway (17.9), but the chigger index (CI) was highest in hill (224.1). A total of 20,534 (CI 126.0) chigger mite individuals from 10 species and three genera were found on the collected rodents. The most common species was Leptotrombidium pallidum (n = 7,982, 83.6%, CI 49.0), followed by L. palpale and L. scutellare. Chigger mites were most frequent at banks near waterway (n = 11,093, CI 152.0) and hill (n = 2,017, CI 224.1). To detect O. tsutsugamushi in chigger mites, 450 pools of chigger mites (n = 10,991) were analyzed; 24 pools were positive—23 of A. agrarius, the most frequently collected species in South Korea, 1 of Micromys minutus—and the minimum positive rate (MPR) was 0.22. The detected strain types included Boryong (dominant in all years, seasons, and habitats), Jecheon, 07–489, and IIOC1202.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence rates of wild rodent hosts and chigger mites and the infection rate ofOrientia tsutsugamushiin the central region of South Korea from 2015 to 2018

Choi

Kim

et al. 2019

Entomological Research

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“…Moreover, weather differs greatly in endemic areas. Recent studies conducted in Asian countries have demonstrated that meteorological factors are statistically related to the occurrence of scrub typhus [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Specifically, temperature, rainfall, humidity, sunshine, atmospheric pressure, surface temperature, and wind speed are indicated as relevant factors in reports of earlier studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Meteorological factors are known to affect the reproduction, development, behaviour, and population dynamics of arthropods transmitting vector-borne pathogens [13][14][15]. Recently, the relationship between meteorological factors and the number of scrub typhus cases in several Asian countries has been investigated [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Although no consensus has been reached, meteorological factors such as temperature and rainfall are generally believed to be associated significantly with the number of scrub typhus cases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological factors affecting scrub typhus occurrence: a retrospective study of Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, 1984–2014

et al. 2016

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SUMMARYClimate change, by its influence on the ecology of vectors might affect the occurrence of vector-borne diseases. This study examines the effects of meteorological factors in Japan on the occurrence of scrub typhus, a mite-borne zoonosis caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. Using negative binomial regression, we analysed the relationships between meteorological factors (including temperature, rainfall, snowfall) and spring–early summer cases of scrub typhus in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, during 1984–2014. The average temperature in July and August of the previous year, cumulative rainfall in September of the previous year, snowfall throughout the winter, and maximum depth of snow cover in January and February were positively correlated with the number of scrub typhus cases. By contrast, cumulative rainfall in July of the previous year showed a negative relationship to the number of cases. These associations can be explained by the life-cycle of Leptotrombidium pallidum, a predominant vector of spring–early summer cases of scrub typhus in northern Japan. Our findings show that several meteorological factors are useful to estimate the number of scrub typhus cases before the endemic period. They are applicable to establish an early warning system for scrub typhus in northern Japan.

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“…Jhajharia et al (2013) found increasing incidences of malaria with rising temperature in Rajasthan, India. Similarly, Kwak et al (2014Kwak et al ( , 2015 found an increase in the occurrence of malaria and the shortening of annual time of occurrence in Korea as a result of climate change. Moreover, the rise of evapotranspiration is likely to increase air humidity which itself is a factor favoring germs transmissions.…”

Section: Other Societal Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Impact of climate change on the hydrologic cycle and implications for society

Dagbegnon¹,

Djebou²,

Singh³

2016

Environ Soc Psychol

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Should we attribute all natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, extreme rainfall, extreme snowfall, glacial melting, changes in space-time distribution of rainfall, changes in ecosystems, earthquakes, fire hazards, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, heat waves, extreme cold weather, wind storms and health epidemics, to climate change? This question often comes up when we review the burgeoning literature on climate change and its impacts. Although climate change is still being debated in certain political, social and economic quarters, there is overwhelming and undeniable scientific evidence supporting climate change. Climate change impacts virtually every facet of society — scientific, technological, environmental, ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political. As a result, strategies for mitigating the impacts and adapting to climate change must be broad and integrated. Some of the impacts stem from the chain reactions in the earth system. Therefore, the socio-economic dimension should be an integral part of climate change discussion. Current literature on climate change is less than balanced among domains of scientific and human thought. This would probably change in the future, since the adaptation strategies are becoming an increasing concern in the scientific community. This article examines the impacts caused by climate change on the hydrologic cycle and discusses their repercussions for the society. It also provides suggestions that may be relevant for redefining policies aiming to improve water security at local and global levels.

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Scrub Typhus Incidence Modeling with Meteorological Factors in South Korea

Cited by 34 publications

References 69 publications

Occurrence rates of wild rodent hosts and chigger mites and the infection rate ofOrientia tsutsugamushiin the central region of South Korea from 2015 to 2018

Occurrence rates of wild rodent hosts and chigger mites and the infection rate ofOrientia tsutsugamushiin the central region of South Korea from 2015 to 2018

Meteorological factors affecting scrub typhus occurrence: a retrospective study of Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, 1984–2014

Impact of climate change on the hydrologic cycle and implications for society

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