Cat Lippi

• PhD
• Postdoctoral Associate at University of Florida

Background: Vector-borne disease places a high health and economic burden in the American tropics. Comprehensive vector control programs remain the primary method of containing local outbreaks. With limited resources, many vector control operations struggle to serve all affected communities within their districts. In the coastal city of Machala, E...

Dengue fever and other febrile mosquito-borne diseases place considerable health and economic burdens on small island nations in the Caribbean. Here, we used two methods of cluster detection to find potential hotspots of transmission of dengue and chikungunya in Barbados, and to assess the impact of input surveillance data and methodology on observ...

Arboviral disease transmission by Aedes mosquitoes poses a major challenge to public health systems in Ecuador, where constraints on health services and resource allocation call for spatially informed management decisions. Employing a unique dataset of larval occurrence records provided by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health, we used ecological niche...

Under global change, plant invasions may alter tick-borne disease (TBD) transmission. The direction and magnitude of changes in TBD risk resulting from invasions remain poorly understood because research has often been species-specific or insufficient to quantify mechanisms. In this overview, we describe how invasive plant functional traits can med...

Here we introduce a demand-driven framework designed to implement climate services in the health sector, with a particular focus on the Caribbean region. Climate services are essential for supporting informed decision-making and response strategies in relation to climate-related health risks. Through collaborative efforts, we are co-producing a cli...

The interactions of environmental, geographic, socio-demographic, and epidemiological factors in shaping mosquito-borne disease transmission dynamics are complex and changeable, influencing the abundance and distribution of vectors and the pathogens they transmit. In this study, 27 years of cross-sectional malaria survey data (1990–2017) were used...

Background Tick-borne diseases are a growing public health threat in the United States. Despite the prevalence and rising burden of tick-borne diseases, there are major gaps in baseline knowledge and surveillance efforts for tick vectors, even among vector control districts and public health agencies. To address this issue, an online tick training...

Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly understood as a hallmark of the Anthropocene 1–3 . Most experts agree that anthropogenic ecosystem change and high-risk contact among people, livestock, and wildlife have contributed to the recent emergence of new zoonotic, vector-borne, and environmentally-transmitted pathogens 1,4–6 . However, the ext...

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR6) brought into sharp relief the potential health impacts of a changing climate across large geographic regions. It also highlighted the gaps in available evidence to support detailed quantitative assessments of health impacts for many regions. In an increasingly u...

Background: Tick-borne diseases are a growing public health threat in the United States. Despite the prevalence and rising burden of tick-borne diseases, there are major gaps in baseline knowledge and surveillance efforts for tick vectors, even among vector control districts and public health agencies. To address this issue, an online tick training...

Impact attribution is an emerging transdisciplinary sub-discipline of detection and attribution, focused on the social, economic, and ecological impacts of climate change. Here, we provide an overview of common end-to-end frameworks in impact attribution, focusing on examples relating to the human health impacts of climate change. We propose a typo...

Mathematical and statistical models are critical tools for both understanding how climate can influence patterns of vector-borne disease transmission, and predicting how climate change might affect these patterns in the future. This chapter focuses primarily on quantitative approaches for modelling the effects of climate on mosquito-borne disease (...

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR6) report brought into sharp relief the potential health impacts of a changing climate across large geographic regions. It also highlighted the gaps in available evidence to support detailed quantitative assessments of health impacts for many regions. In an increas...

Background: The interactions of environmental, geographic, socio-demographic, and epidemiological factors in shaping mosquito-borne disease transmission dynamics are complex and changeable, influencing the abundance and distribution of vectors and the pathogens they transmit. In this study, 27 years of prevalence data (1990-2017) were used to exami...

Species distribution modeling (SDM) has become an increasingly common approach to explore questions about ecology, geography, outbreak risk, and global change as they relate to infectious disease vectors. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature, screening 563 abstracts and identifying 204 studies that used SDMs to produc...

Climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling is crucial for public health planning and is underpinned by a complex network of software tools. We identified only 37 tools that incorporated both climate inputs and epidemiological information to produce an output of disease risk in one package, were transparently described and validated, were named...

Background Understanding the geographic distribution of Rickettsia montanensis infections in Dermacentor variabilis is important for tick-borne disease management in the United States, as both a tick-borne agent of interest and a potential confounder in surveillance of other rickettsial diseases. Two previous studies modeled niche suitability for D...

Background Anopheles stephensi is a malaria-transmitting mosquito that has recently expanded from its primary range in Asia and the Middle East, to locations in Africa. This species is a competent vector of both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. Perhaps most alarming, the characteristics of An. stephensi, such as container breedin...

Species distribution modeling (SDM) has become an increasingly common approach to explore questions about ecology, geography, outbreak risk, and global change as they relate to infectious disease vectors. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature, screening 563 abstracts and identifying 204 studies that used SDMs to produc...

Increasingly, geographic approaches to assessing the risk of tick‐borne diseases are being used to inform public health decision‐making and surveillance efforts. The distributions of key tick species of medical importance are often modeled as a function of environmental factors, using niche modeling approaches to capture habitat suitability. Howeve...

A growing body of information on vector-borne diseases has arisen as increasing research focus has been directed towards the need for anticipating risk, optimizing surveillance, and understanding the fundamental biology of vector-borne diseases to direct control and mitigation efforts. The scope and scale of this information, in the form of data, c...

Background Understanding the geographic distribution of Rickettsia montanensis infections in Dermacentor variabilis is important for tick-borne disease management in the United States, as both a tick-borne agent of interest and a potential confounder in surveillance of other rickettsial diseases. Two previous studies modeled niche suitability for D...

Background: Anopheles stephensi is a malaria-transmitting mosquito that has recently expanded from its primary range in Asia and the Middle East, to locations in Africa. This species is a competent vector of both P. falciparum (PF) and P. vivax (PV) malaria. Perhaps most alarming, the characteristics of An. stephensi, such as container breeding and...

Over the past decade, the Caribbean region has been challenged by compound climate and health hazards, including tropical storms, extreme heat and droughts and overlapping epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue, chikungunya and Zika. Early warning systems (EWS) are a key climate change adaptation strategy for the health sector. An E...

A growing body of information on vector-borne diseases has arisen as increasing research focus has been directed towards the need for anticipating risk, optimizing surveillance, and understanding the fundamental biology of vector-borne diseases to direct efforts to control and mitigation. The scope and scale of this information, in the form of data...

Background Simultaneous dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks in Florida, USA, in 2020 resulted in 71 dengue virus serotype 1 and 86 WNV human cases. We hypothesized that we would find a number of DENV-1 positive mosquito pools, and that the distribution of these arbovirus-positive mosquito pools would be associated with those nei...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005568.].

Climate-informed infectious disease models have the potential to become powerful tools to support public health decision making. This project aimed to identify existing software tools at the intersection of climate and infectious diseases, and to identify opportunities for the development of tools.

Hemidactylus mabouia is one of the most successful, widespread invasive reptile species and has become ubiquitous across tropical urban settings in the Western Hemisphere. Its ability to thrive in close proximity to humans has been linked to the rapid disappearance of native geckos. However, aspects of Hemidactylus mabouia natural history and ecomo...

Arboviruses transmitted by Aedes aegypti (e.g., dengue, chikungunya, Zika) are of major public health concern on the arid coastal border of Ecuador and Peru. This high transit border is a critical disease surveillance site due to human movement-associated risk of transmission. Local level studies are thus integral to capturing the dynamics and dist...

Simultaneous dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV) outbreaks in Florida, USA, in 2020 resulted in 71 dengue virus serotype 1 and 86 WNV human cases. Our outbreak response leveraged a molecular diagnostic screen of mosquito populations for DENV and WNV in Miami-Dade County to quickly employ targeted mosquito abatement efforts. We detected DE...

Tick-borne diseases are a growing problem in many parts of the world, and their surveillance and control touch on challenging issues in medical entomology, agricultural health, veterinary medicine, and biosecurity. Spatial approaches can be used to synthesize the data generated by integrative One Health surveillance systems, and help stakeholders,...

Contents: Introduction - Synonymy - Distribution - Life Cycle - Medical Importance - Surveillance and Management - Selected References Also published on the Featured Creatures website at http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/AQUATIC/aedes_japonicus.html

The management of mosquito-borne diseases is a challenge in southern coastal Ecuador, where dengue is hyper-endemic and co-circulates with other arboviral diseases. Prior work in the region has explored social-ecological factors, dengue case data, and entomological indices. In this study, we bring together entomological and epidemiological data to...

The rising prevalence of tick-borne diseases in humans in recent decades has called attention to the need for more information on geographic risk for public health planning. Species distribution models (SDMs) are an increasingly utilized method of constructing potential geographic ranges. There are many knowledge gaps in our understanding of risk o...

Tick-borne diseases are a growing problem in many parts of the world, and their surveillance and control touches on challenging issues in medical entomology, agricultural health, veterinary medicine, and biosecurity. Spatial approaches can be used to synthesize the data generated by integrative One Health surveillance systems, and help stakeholders...

Vector borne diseases (VBDs) are often seen by the highly developed nations of the world as an issue of poor tropical countries. While framing the problem this way—through the paradigm of a poverty-trap—may leverage aid and motivate political will toward disease control, it misses a wide range of socio-political contexts both driving, and driven by...

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae), is a vector for several human disease-causing pathogens such as tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the understudied spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) infection caused by Rickettsia montanensis. It is important for public health planning and intervention to underst...

Originally published at: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/AQUATIC/Wyeomyia_vanduzeei.html

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say), is a vector for several human disease causing pathogens such as tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the understudied spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) infection caused by Rickettsia montanensis . It is important for public health planning and intervention to understand the distribut...

The management of mosquito-borne diseases is a challenge in southern coastal Ecuador, where dengue is hyper-endemic and co-circulates with other arboviral diseases. Prior work in the region has explored social-ecological factors, dengue case data, and entomological indices. In this study, we bring together entomological and epidemiological data to...

Diversity is a driving force of innovation and creativity in scientific research. Therefore, supporting and maintaining diversity is a priority within academic communities. Gender is an important but understudied aspect of diversity in most scientific fields, including entomology. Women remain underrepresented in paid academic positions, despite th...

Arboviruses are arthropod-borne viruses that include many viruses of public health concern found in Ecuador. Dengue virus, yellow fever virus and Zika virus are in the Flaviridae family (1), while chikungunya virus and Mayaro virus are in the Togaviridae family (1). Yellow fever has circulated throughout the tropics since at least the17th century,...

Infectious diseases, including zoonotic infectious diseases, are some of the leading causes of the global burden of diseases. Public health education/promotion specialists are specifically trained in methods and theory to deliver risk communication that can help decrease the transmissibility, morbidity, and mortality of infectious diseases. However...

Background: Malaria continues to be a disease of massive burden in Africa, and the public health resources targeted at surveillance, prevention, control, and intervention comprise large outlays of expense. Malaria transmission is largely constrained by the suitability of the climate for Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium parasite development. Thu...

Hemidactylus spp. (House geckos) rank among the most successful invasive reptile species worldwide. Hemidactylus mabouia in particular has become ubiquitous across tropical urban settings in the Western Hemisphere. H. mabouia's ability to thrive in close proximity to humans has led to the rapid displacement of native geckos in urban areas, however...

The rising prevalence of tick-borne diseases in humans in recent decades has called attention to the need for more information on geographic risk for public health planning. Species distribution models (SDMs) are an increasingly utilized method of constructing potential geographic ranges. There are many knowledge gaps in our understanding of risk o...

Objective: To detect potential hotspots of transmission of dengue and chikungunya in Barbados, and assess impact of input surveillance data and methodology on observed patterns of risk. Methods: Using two methods of cluster detection, Moran’s I and spatial scan statistics, we analyzed the geospatial and temporal distribution of disease cases and ra...

Background: Vector-borne disease places a high health and economic burden in the American tropics. Comprehensive vector control programs remain the primary method of containing local outbreaks. With limited resources, many vector control operations struggle to serve all affected communities within their districts. In the coastal city of Machala, Ec...

Background Malaria continues to be a disease of massive burden in Africa, and the public health resources targeted at surveillance, prevention, control, and intervention comprise large outlays of expense. Malaria transmission is largely constrained by the suitability of the climate for Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium parasite development. Thus,...

Mosquito‐borne diseases cause a major burden of disease worldwide. The vital rates of these ectothermic vectors and parasites respond strongly and nonlinearly to temperature and therefore to climate change. Here, we review how trait‐based approaches can synthesise and mechanistically predict the temperature dependence of transmission across vectors...

Predicting where crop pests and diseases can occur, both now and in the future under different climate change scenarios, is a major challenge for crop management. One solution is to estimate the fundamental thermal niche of the pest/disease to indicate where establishment is possible. Here, we develop methods for estimating and displaying the funda...

Insecticide resistance (IR) can undermine efforts to control vectors of public health importance. Aedes aegypti is the main vector of resurging diseases in the Americas such as yellow fever and dengue, and recently emerging chikungunya and Zika fever, which have caused unprecedented epidemics in the region. Vector control remains the primary interv...

Agreement of best model subsets built with best ranked suite of environmental variables for larval Aedes aegypti presence in Ecuador under A) current climate conditions and future climate conditions projected to the year 2050 under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 for the B) BCC-CSM-1, C) CCSM4, and D) HADGEM2-ES General Circulation M...

Agreement of best model subsets built with best ranked suite of environmental variables for larval Aedes aegypti presence in Ecuador under A) current climate conditions and future climate conditions projected to the year 2050 under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 6.0 for the B) BCC-CSM-1, C) CCSM4, and D) HADGEM2-ES General Circulation M...

Accuracy metrics for best model subsets built with the original dataset of aggregated LI occurrence points provided by the MSP using the full set of environmental coverage variables. Each experiment was performed with a randomly chosen subset (75%) of LI presence points. (DOCX)

Prevalence of environmental coverages in model building ruleset. (DOCX)

Dengue fever is an emerging infectious disease in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, with the first cases reported in 2002 and subsequent periodic outbreaks. We report results of a 2014 pilot study conducted in Puerto Ayora (PA) on Santa Cruz Island, and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (PB) on San Cristobal Island. To assess the socio-ecological risk factor...

Insecticide resistance (IR) can undermine efforts to control vectors of public health importance. Aedes aegypti is the main vector of resurging diseases in the Americas such as yellow fever and dengue, and recently emerging chikungunya and Zika fever, which have caused unprecedented epidemics in the region. Vector control remains the primary interv...

Arboviral disease transmission by Aedes mosquitoes poses a major challenge to public health systems in Ecuador, where constraints on health services and resource allocation call for spatially informed management decisions. Employing a unique dataset of larval occurrence records provided by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health, we used ecological niche...

Background Over the last 5 years (2013–2017), the Caribbean region has faced an unprecedented crisis of co-occurring epidemics of febrile illness due to arboviruses transmitted by the Aedes sp. mosquito (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika). Since 2013, the Caribbean island of Barbados has experienced 3 dengue outbreaks, 1 chikungunya outbreak, and 1 Zik...

Over the last 5 years (2013-2017), the Caribbean region has faced an unprecedented crisis of co-occurring epidemics of febrile illness due to arboviruses transmitted by the Aedes sp. mosquito (dengue, chikungunya, and Zika). Since 2013, the Caribbean island of Barbados has experienced 3 dengue outbreaks, 1 chikungunya outbreak, and 1 Zika fever out...

Annual cycle of dengue incidence rates and meteorological station data. Annual cycle of (a) dengue incidence rate (per 100,000 population), (b) precipitation (mm/month), and (c) Tmin (°C) averaged over CIMH and GAIA weather stations. CIMH, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology; GAIA, Grantley Adams International Airport; Tmin, minimum t...

Annual cycle of the SPI-6 and the Oceanic Niño Index. Annual cycle of (a) SPI-6 and (b) Oceanic Niño Index, defined as the 3-month running-mean sea surface temperature departures from average in the Niño 3.4 region (120–170° W, 5° S-5° N), from June 1999 to May 2016. SPI-6, 6-month Standardised Precipitation Index. (TIF)

Observed versus predicted dengue incidence rates. Observed versus posterior predicted mean dengue incidence rates (per 100,000 population) from the final model (purple circles) and the baseline model (red squares). Note: logarithmic scale. (TIF)

SPI classification used in the Caribbean from January 2011. SPI, Standardised Precipitation Index. (DOCX)

SPI variable at different time scales. The CV mean logarithmic score, the DIC, and the likelihood ratio RLR2 statistic for models including monthly and yearly random effects and an exposure–lag–response function with time lags from 0 to 5 months for the SPI averaged over 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months). The best indicator is shaded in g...

Site map and location of meteorological stations in Barbados. Map of Caribbean (left) and Barbados showing population (middle) and elevation (right) and the locations of the 2 main meteorological stations (CIMH and GAIA). This figure was created in ArcGIS version 10.3.1 [59] using shapefiles from the GADM database of Global Administrative Areas ver...

Smoothed rainfall seasonality at the CIMH synoptic station in Barbados. The chance of a wet day (i.e., a calendar day with >0.85 mm; left panel) and the average rainfall intensity on a wet day for each Julian day of the year (right panel). Source: modified from Trotman and colleagues [20]. CIMH, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology. (T...

Overall cumulative exposure–response. Exposure–response association across all lags (0 to 5 months) for (a) the SPI-6 relative to the baseline SPI-6 = 0 and (b) Tmin relative to the baseline Tmin = 20°C. SPI-6, 6-month standardised precipitation index; Tmin, minimum temperature. (TIF)

Model adequacy results for single-lag univariate models. Summary statistics for a model including monthly and yearly random effects and (a) SPI-6 and (b) Tmin at individual lags of 0 to 5 months: posterior mean, 95% CIs, the CV mean logarithmic score, the DIC, and the likelihood ratio RLR2 statistic. CI, credible interval; CV, cross-validated; DIC,...

Climate variable selection. The CV mean logarithmic score, the DIC, and the likelihood ratio RLR2 statistic for models including monthly and yearly random effects and an exposure–lag–response function with time lags from 0 to 5 months for individual climate variables: precipitation, SPI (1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month), Tmin, mean temperat...

Annual cycle of dengue cases in Barbados during drier than normal, near-normal, and wetter than normal seasons. Annual cycle of dengue cases given tercile categories of the SPI-6: drier than normal (solid curve), normal (dashed curve), and wetter than normal (dotted curve). During wetter than average years, dengue cases tended to peak earlier in th...

ROC curves to define alarm trigger threshold. ROC curve for binary event of dengue incidence rates exceeding the moving outbreak threshold (75th percentile of observed dengue incidence rates per month, excluding the year for which the prediction is valid) for (a) final model (without year effect contribution) and (b) baseline model. Numbers indicat...

SPI values and precipitation intensities [35]. SPI, Standardised Precipitation Index. (DOCX)

Prior and hyperprior distribution specification. (DOCX)

Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne arbovirus, is a major public health concern in Ecuador.In this study, we aimed to describe the spatial distribution of dengue risk and identify localsocial-ecological factors associated with an outbreak of dengue fever in the city of Guayaquil,Ecuador. We examined georeferenced dengue cases (n= 4248) and block-level c...

Barbados is a Caribbean island country of approximately 285,000 people, with a thriving tourism industry. In 2015, Zika spread rapidly throughout the Americas, and its proliferation through the Caribbean islands followed suit. Barbados reported its first confirmed autochthonous Zika transmission to the Pan American Health Organization in January 20...

Barbados is a Caribbean island country of approximately 285,000 people, with a thriving tourism industry. In 2015, Zika spread rapidly throughout the Americas, and its proliferation through the Caribbean islands followed suit. Barbados reported its first confirmed autochthonous Zika transmission to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Jan...

13 个地点监测了蚊类的种类。2015 年 4 月-2016 年 7 月期间， 从凤梨科植物叶腋上收集了 Aedes aegypti Linn.、 Aedes albopictus Skuse、 Culex quinquefascaitus Say、 Wyeomyia mitchelli Theobald 和 Toxorhynchites r. rutilus Coquillett 的幼虫。在被调查的 80%的居住地点的凤梨科植物上积水中发现了白纹伊蚊和致倦库蚊两种蚊的幼 虫， 在几处地点的植物叶腋中发现了八种不同的无脊椎动物。结论 凤梨科植物是白纹伊蚊、 其他蚊类和几种无脊椎 动物的繁殖地。尽管蚊类可能会利用凤梨科植物来作为栖息地， 实验证明， 完整或受损的凤梨叶不是成年白纹伊蚊生 存的主...

Background Quantifying mosquito biting rates for specific locations enables estimation of mosquito-borne disease risk, and can inform intervention efforts. Measuring biting itself is fraught with ethical concerns, so the landing rate of mosquitoes on humans is often used as a proxy measure. Southern coastal Ecuador was historically endemic for mala...

Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, is an ongoing public health problem in Ecuador and throughout the tropics, yet we have a limited understanding of the disease transmission dynamics in these regions. The objective of this study was to characterize the spatial dynamics and social-ecological risk factors associated with a recent dengue ou...

Background Quantifying mosquito biting rates for specific locations enables estimation of mosquito-borne disease risk, and can inform intervention efforts. Measuring biting itself is fraught with ethical concerns, so the landing rate of mosquitoes on humans is often used as a proxy measure. Southern coastal Ecuador was historically endemic for mala...

Recent epidemics of Zika, dengue, and chikungunya have heightened the need to understand the seasonal and geographic range of transmission by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. We use mechanistic transmission models to derive predictions for how the probability and magnitude of transmission for Zika, chikungunya, and dengue change with me...

Supplementary Results, References, and Figures A-O. (PDF)

Supplementary Tables A-D. (PDF)

Recent epidemics of Zika, dengue, and chikungunya have heightened the need to understand the seasonal and geographic range of transmission by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. We use mechanistic transmission models to derive predictions for how the probability and magnitude of transmission for Zika, chikungunya, and dengue change with me...