Monica Myers

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne infection caused by a virus (CCHFV) from the Bunyaviridae family. Domestic and wild vertebrates are asymptomatic reservoirs for the virus, putting animal handlers, slaughter-house workers and agricultural labourers at highest risk in endemic areas, with secondary transmission possible through c...

In order to map global disease risk, a geographic database of human Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) occurrence was produced by surveying peer-reviewed literature and case reports, as well as informal online sources. Here we present this database, comprising occurrence data linked to geographic point or polygon locations dating from 1...

The leishmaniases are neglected tropical diseases of significant public health importance. However, information on their global occurrence is disparate and sparse. This database represents an attempt to collate reported leishmaniasis occurrences from 1960 to 2012. Methodology for the collection of data from the literature, abstraction of case locat...

The leishmaniases are vector-borne diseases that have a broad global distribution throughout much of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Despite representing a significant public health burden, our understanding of the global distribution of the leishmaniases remains vague, reliant upon expert opinion and limited to poor spatial resolution. A global as...

Dengue is a systemic viral infection transmitted between humans by Aedes mosquitoes. For some patients, dengue is a life-threatening illness. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific therapeutics, and substantial vector control efforts have not stopped its rapid emergence and global spread. The contemporary worldwide distribution of the...

This file contains Supplementary Information Sections A-F – see contents for details. Table of Contents A: Assembly of the dengue database A.1: Overview A.2: Peer-reviewed literature search A2.1: Data collection A.2.2: Assigning geo-positions to data from the peer-reviewed literature A.3: Collation of online informal data sources A3.1: Data collec...

The primary aim of this review was to evaluate the state of knowledge of the geographical distribution of all infectious diseases of clinical significance to humans. A systematic review was conducted to enumerate cartographic progress, with respect to the data available for mapping and the methods currently applied. The results helped define the mi...

Re: Response to Hay (2013) Global mapping of infectious disease by Simon I. Hay et al, 16 July 2013. Response to Hay (2013) Global mapping of infectious disease by Jennifer L. Smith et al, 16 July 2013.

Systematic Review of Diseases of Clinical Significance - Collated epidemiological information for 355 diseases of clinical significance

Current understanding of the spatial epidemiology and geographical distribution of Plasmodium vivax is far less developed than that for P. falciparum, representing a barrier to rational strategies for control and elimination. Here we present the first systematic effort to map the global endemicity of this hitherto neglected parasite. We first updat...

Protocol S1. Updating the global spatial limits of Plasmodium vivax malaria transmission for 2010. S1.1 Overview. S1.2 Identifying Countries Considered P. vivax Malaria Endemic. S1.3 Updating National Risk Extents with P. vivax Annual Parasite Incidence Data. S1.4 Biological Masks of Transmission Exclusion. S1.5 Risk Modulation Based on Medical Int...

Background: The reasons for the seasonality and annual changes in the impact of influenza epidemics remain poorly understood. A strong coherence of influenza epidemics at a hemispheric level may suggest the role of global factors, such as climate, as a driving force of seasonality. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) represents the largest sign...

The reasons for the seasonality and annual changes in the impact of influenza epidemics remain poorly understood. We investigated the covariations between a major component of climate, namely the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and indicators of the impact of influenza, as measured by morbidity, excess mortality and viral subtypes collected in...

Asthma in school children is rising, and indoor allergens are very common triggers of asthma attacks; however, the risk of the school environment on asthma has not been well studied. To determine the presence and the levels of common aeroallergens in schools, where asthma prevalence rates are high. Settled dust samples were collected from 12 Baltim...

In our study¹ we did not address the impact of predicted climate change on malaria incidence because a complete global assessment is reported elsewhere². Regarding the climate surfaces we used, the data set has superior spatial resolution compared with other data sets of similar temporal extent3, ⁴, and has been used to quantify climate change acro...

Asthma hospitalization rates have increased in the United States since 1980. The exposure risk of many environmental factors, which contribute to respiratory disease, vary throughout the year. The objective of this study was to investigate the seasonal variation of pediatric asthma hospitalizations and predict hospitalization frequency. This was a...

this article, we discuss how such heterogeneity, and its epidemiological consequences, should be considered in the development of early warning systems for malaria epidemics

West Nile Virus (WNV) was first discovered in the United States in September of 1999, after a cluster of cases of human neurological illness was identified in the borough of Queens in New York City. Eventually, that outbreak led to 62 human cases of WNV, including seven deaths. Multiple researchers identified and isolated the virus in several bird...

The public health and economic consequences of Plasmodium falciparum malaria are once again regarded as priorities for global development. There has been much speculation on whether anthropogenic climate change is exacerbating the malaria problem, especially in areas of high altitude where P. falciparum transmission is limited by low temperature. T...

Kenya displays large spatiotemporal diversity in its climate and ecology. It follows that malaria transmission will reflect this environmental heterogeneity in both space and time. In this article, we discuss how such heterogeneity, and its epidemiological consequences, should be considered in the development of early warning systems for malaria ep...

Emerging infectious diseases pose a growing threat to human populations. Many of the world's epidemic diseases (particularly those transmitted by intermediate hosts) are known to be highly sensitive to long-term changes in climate and short-term fluctuations in the weather. The application of environmental data to the study of disease offers the ca...

Dengue viruses and malaria protozoa are of increasing global concern in public health. The diseases caused by these pathogens often show regular seasonal patterns in incidence because of the sensitivity of their mosquito vectors to climate. Between years in endemic areas, however, there can be further significant variation in case numbers for which...

All known Rift Valley fever virus outbreaks in East Africa from 1950 to May 1998, and probably earlier, followed periods of abnormally high rainfall. Analysis of this record and Pacific and Indian Ocean sea surface temperature anomalies, coupled with satellite normalized difference vegetation index data, shows that prediction of Rift Valley fever o...