Determining hotspots of human exposure to rodents, bats and monkeys in Bangladesh

Résumé fourni par la source

Purpose: Bangladesh is at risk for emerging infectious disease transmission from wildlife to humans because of its extremely dense human population, wildlife diversity, deforestation, urbanization and habitat migration. There are some known examples of diseases that have been transmitted to humans from wildlife in Bangladesh, however, efforts to identify new emerging threats should be pursued. The objectives of this study were to identify the frequency of human exposures to rodents, bats and monkeys and to map human exposure to these animals across Bangladesh, to identify their seasonality, and to inform in-depth studies of disease transmission. Methods & Materials: From 2013 through 2016, we conducted a cross sectional survey in a nationally representative sample of 9,512 households from 952 randomly selected urban and rural communities. The most senior household member between 18 to 60 years of age was interviewed about any household members’ exposures to rodents, bats and monkeys within the past month. We performed kernel density estimation to measure intensity of each exposure geographically. The spatial dependence between exposure and longitude was examined by scatter plot and correlation coefficient. Results: Throughout the country, 90% (95%CI: 89-91) of respondents reported observing rats/mice in their households, 51% (95%CI: 50-52) reported observing bats and 2% (95%CI: 1.6-2.2) reported observing monkeys close to their households. Among all households, 8.5% (95%CI: 7.9-9.1) reported direct contact with rodents, 0.5% (95%CI: 0.4-0.7) with bats and 0.05% (95%CI: 0.022-0.13) with monkeys. Contact with rodents was more commonly reported in the two largest metropolitan areas and their surroundings. Human exposure to bats was more common in the southwest and northern part of the country and exposure to monkeys was primarily clustered in the southwest and northeast. There was no seasonality in exposures. Conclusion: Of the 160 million people in Bangladesh, 13.6 million are exposed to rodents every month, 800,000 to bats and 80,000 to monkeys. Diseases known to be transmitted through these exposure routes could be prevented by targeting high contact areas for surveillance and prevention efforts. Information about where these exposures cluster could be used to inform studies aimed at identifying emerging disease from rodents, bats and monkeys.

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