Joshua Longbottom

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Postdoctoral researcher at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Background: During the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era, many countries in Africa achieved marked reductions in under-5 and neonatal mortality. Yet the pace of progress toward these goals substantially varied at the national level, demonstrating an essential need for tracking even more local trends in child mortality. With the adoption of the...

Background Yellow fever cases are under-reported and the exact distribution of the disease is unknown. An effective vaccine is available but more information is needed about which populations within risk zones should be targeted to implement interventions. Substantial outbreaks of yellow fever in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brazil...

Summary Background Snakebite envenoming is a frequently overlooked cause of mortality and morbidity. Data for snake ecology and existing snakebite interventions are scarce, limiting accurate burden estimation initiatives. Low global awareness stunts new interventions, adequate health resources, and available health care. Therefore, we aimed to syn...

Background Surveillance is an essential component of global programs to eliminate infectious diseases and avert epidemics of (re-)emerging diseases. As the numbers of cases decline, costs of treatment and control diminish but those for surveillance remain high even after the ‘last’ case. Reducing surveillance may risk missing persistent or (re-)eme...

The distribution of Aedes albopictus across west Africa is well documented. However, little has been done to synthesise data and establish the current distribution of this invasive vector in central and east Africa. In this Viewpoint, we show that A albopictus is establishing across Africa, how this is potentially related to urbanisation, and how e...

Introduction Tsetse flies (Glossina) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which causes gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT). As part of national efforts to eliminate gHAT as a public health problem, Uganda implemented a large-scale programme of deploying Tiny Targets, which comprise panels of insecticide-treated material which attract a...

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...

Introduction Tsetse flies ( Glossina ) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense which causes gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT). As part of national efforts to eliminate gHAT as a public health problem, Uganda implemented a large-scale programme of deploying Tiny Targets, which comprise panels of insecticide-treated material which attract...

Mapping health facility catchment areas is important for estimating the population that uses the health facility, as a denominator for capturing spatial patterns of disease burden across space. Mapping activities to generate catchment areas are expensive exercises and are often not repeated on a regular basis. In this work, we demonstrated the gene...

Despite substantial declines since 2000, lower respiratory infections (LRIs), diarrhoeal diseases, and malaria remain among the leading causes of nonfatal and fatal disease burden for children under 5 years of age (under 5), primarily in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The spatial burden of each of these diseases has been estimated subnationally across S...

Background Tsetse flies (Glossina) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense which causes Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT) in Central and West Africa. Several countries use Tiny Targets, comprising insecticide-treated panels of material which attract and kill tsetse, as part of their national programmes to eliminate gHAT. We studied how the...

Background Riverine species of tsetse ( Glossina ) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense , which causes Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT), a neglected tropical disease. Uganda aims to eliminate gHAT as a public health problem through detection and treatment of human cases and vector control. The latter is being achieved through the deplo...

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted...

Recent evidence suggests that, in some foci, elimination of onchocerciasis from Africa may be feasible with mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. To achieve continental elimination of transmission, mapping surveys will need to be conducted across all implementation units (IUs) for which endemicity status is currently unknown. Using boosted...

Venomous snakebite is a neglected tropical disease that annually leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths or long-term physical and mental ailments across the developing world. Insufficient data on spatial variation in snakebite risk, incidence, human vulnerability, and accessibility of medical treatment contribute substantially to ineffective on-g...

Background Riverine species of tsetse (Glossina) transmit Trypanosoma brucei gambiense which causes Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (gHAT), a neglected tropical disease. Uganda aims to eliminate gHAT as a public health problem through detection and treatment of human cases and vector control. The latter is being achieved through the deploymen...

Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (g-HAT) is the chronic form of sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense in West and Central Africa, while Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense causes an acute form in eastern Africa. g-HAT is targeted for elimination as a public health problem by 2020 and 0 transmission by 2030 [1,2]. Control of g-H...

Background Climate change is predicted to impact the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases. Tsetse flies ( Glossina ) transmit species of Trypanosoma that cause human and animal African trypanosomiasis. A previous modelling study showed that temperature increases between 1990 and 2017 can explain the observed decline in abundance of tsetse...

Significance In 2012, an unusual outbreak of malaria occurred in Djibouti City followed by increasingly severe annual outbreaks. Investigations revealed the presence of an Asian mosquito species; Anopheles stephensi , which thrives in urban environments. An. stephensi has since been identified in Ethiopia and Sudan. By combining data for An. stephe...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Background Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a form of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea that has the potential to drastically reduce child mortality; yet, according to UNICEF estimates, less than half of children younger than 5 years with diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) received ORS in 2016. A variety of rec...

Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a form of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea that has the potential to drastically reduce child mortality; yet, according to UNICEF estimates, less than half of children younger than 5 years with diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) received ORS in 2016. A variety of recommended ho...

Background Surveillance is an essential component of global programs to eliminate infectious diseases and avert epidemics of (re-)emerging diseases. As the numbers of cases decline, costs of treatment and control diminish but those for surveillance remain high even after the ‘last’ case. Reducing surveillance may risk missing persistent or (re-)eme...

Background Climate change is predicted to impact the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases. Tsetse flies ( Glossina ) transmit species of Trypanosoma that cause human and animal African trypanosomiasis. A previous modelling study showed that temperature increases between 1990 and 2017 can explain the observed decline in abundance of tsetse...

Background Across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), one in ten deaths in children younger than 5 years is attributable to diarrhoea. The substantial between-country variation in both diarrhoea incidence and mortality is attributable to interventions that protect children, prevent infection, and treat disease. Identifying subnational r...

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant...

Background Across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), one in ten deaths in children younger than 5 years is attributable to diarrhoea. The substantial between-country variation in both diarrhoea incidence and mortality is attributable to interventions that protect children, prevent infection, and treat disease. Identifying subnational r...

Background Vector-borne diseases are important causes of mortality and morbidity in humans and livestock, particularly for poorer communities and countries in the tropics. Large-scale programs against these diseases, for example malaria, dengue and African trypanosomiasis, include vector control, and assessing the impact of this intervention requir...

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasing threat to global health. There are > 14 million cases of enteric fever every year and > 135,000 deaths. The disease is primarily controlled by antimicrobial treatment, but this is becoming increasingly difficult due to AMR. Our objectives were to assess the prevalence and geographic distr...

Preventable diseases still cause huge mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Research in spatial epidemiology and earth observation is helping academics to understand and prioritise how mortality could be reduced and generates spatial data that are used at a global and national level, to inform disease control policy. These data could also...

Preventable diseases still cause huge mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Research in spatial epidemiology and earth observation is helping academics to understand and prioritise how mortality could be reduced and generates spatial data that are used at a global and national level, to inform disease control policy. These data could also...

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends....

Background: Vector-borne diseases are important causes of mortality and morbidity in humans and livestock, particularly for poorer communities and countries in the tropics. Large-scale programs against these diseases, for example malaria, dengue and African trypanosomiasis, include vector control, and assessing the impact of this intervention requi...

Sleeping sickness, also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is a disease transmitted by the bite of a tsetse fly. Control of Gambian sleeping sickness, the most common form of HAT, is primarily achieved through active and passive surveillance and subsequent treatment plus vector control. A cost-effective method of controlling riverine spe...

Insufficient growth during childhood is associated with poor health outcomes and an increased risk of death. Between 2000 and 2015, nearly all African countries demonstrated improvements for children under 5 years old for stunting, wasting, and underweight, the core components of child growth failure. Here we show that striking subnational heteroge...

Educational attainment for women of reproductive age is linked to reduced child and maternal mortality, lower fertility and improved reproductive health. Comparable analyses of attainment exist only at the national level, potentially obscuring patterns in subnational inequality. Evidence suggests that wide disparities between urban and rural popula...

This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-46, Supplementary Tables 1-19, Supplementary Data, a Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary References – see contents page for details.

This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary Figures 1-34, Supplementary Tables 1-24 and Supplementary References – see contents pages for details.

Background: Substantial outbreaks of yellow fever in Angola and Brazil in the past 2 years, combined with global shortages in vaccine stockpiles, highlight a pressing need to assess present control strategies. The aims of this study were to estimate global yellow fever vaccination coverage from 1970 through to 2016 at high spatial resolution and t...

Poster presented at the Joint Insect Ecology & Medical & Veterinary Special Interest Groups meeting at the Linnean Society on the 17th May.

Background: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is one of the most significant aetiological agents of viral encephalitis in Asia. This medically important arbovirus is primarily spread from vertebrate hosts to humans by the mosquito vector Culex tritaeniorhynchus. Knowledge of the contemporary distribution of this vector species is lacking, and efforts to d...

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Temporal distribution of Culex tritaeniorhynchus occurrence data. Histogram showing the number of spatially unique Cx. tritaeniorhynchus occurrence records per year in our dataset (1928–2014). 73.43% of occurrence records were obtained during the years for which we have annual land cover class layers (2001–2012), as...

Additional file 4: Figure S2. Map of model uncertainty. Standard deviation values for each pixel were calculated across the model ensemble on the logit scale. Areas from lower to higher standard deviation values are shown.

Additional file 2: Table S1. Occurrence data used to fit and train the model. The file contains geo-positioned occurrence data obtained from literature searches and GBIF. An ‘OBJECTID’ is provided for VectorMap data to allow readers to obtain the same records used within this study directly from the source.

Additional file 1. Temporal distribution of Culex tritaeniorhynchus occurrence data. Histogram showing the number of spatially unique Cx. tritaeniorhynchus occurrence records per year in our dataset (1928‐2014). 73.43% of occurrence records were obtained during the years for which we have annual land cover class layers (2001‐2012), as indicated by...

Additional file 5: Table S2. The relative influence of each covariate on the model. The relative influence of each covariate in rank order, including mean (%), 2.5% quantile and 97.5% quantile values.

Cross-country studies of trends in child mortality have shown, in average, large declines in nearly every country. At the same time, these successes have been varied. It is unknown though to what extent inequalities in child mortality exists and persists within countries, as there have never been contemporaneous and comparable cross-country subnati...

Background Many of the mosquito species responsible for malaria transmission belong to a sibling complex; a taxonomic group of morphologically identical, closely related species. Sibling species often differ in several important factors that have the potential to impact malaria control, including their geographical distribution, resistance to insec...

Control of Aedes albopictus, major dengue and chikungunya vector, is threatened by growing cases of insecticide resistance. The mechanisms driving this resistance remain poorly characterised. This study investigated the molecular basis of insecticide resistance in Malaysian populations of Ae. albopictus. Microarray-based transcription profiling rev...

Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa has historically been almost exclusively attributed to Plasmodium falciparum (Pf). Current diagnostic and surveillance systems in much of sub-Saharan Africa are not designed to identify or report non-Pf human malaria infections accurately, resulting in a dearth of routine epidemiological data about their significance....

Table S1. Reports of wild-caught Pv-infected mosquito vectors

Fig S1. Prevalence of infection by Pf (PfPR) in relation to PvPR among Duffy positive hosts (PvPRFy+).

Text S1: investigation of the characteristics of the PvPR data in relation to host population characteristics and PfPR.

Table S2. Reports of serological studies with positive reports of Pv

Table S4. Reports of Duffy negative hosts infected by Pv

Fig S2. Regional summaries and relative differences in PvPRFy+ and PfPR (log transformed).

Table S3. Local case reports of Pv infection among patients in Africa

Fig S3. Logistic-regression model predictions using PR values of one species to predict those of the other (n=249).

Table S6. National PvPAR estimates

Table S5. Summary Admin1 classifications by country

Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic illness responsible for disease outbreaks across West Africa. It is a zoonosis, with the primary reservoir species identified as the Natal multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis. The host is distributed across sub-Saharan Africa while the virus' range appears to be restricted to West Africa. The majority of infe...