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2018-11-21T05:06:32.1906698Z
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Researchers discover how 'cryptic' connections in disease transmission influence epidemics
Phys.Org
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-cryptic-disease-transmission-epidemics.html
By Virginia Tech
Diseases have repeatedly spilled over from wildlife to humans, causing local to global epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, and Nipah.
A new study by researchers of disease transmission in bats has broad implications for understanding hidden or "cryptic" connections that can spread diseases between species and lead to large-scale outbreaks.
By dusting bats with a fluorescent powder that glows under ultraviolet light, Virginia Tech researchers Joseph Hoyt and Kate Langwig were able to trace the dynamics of disease transmission in bat species that have been devastated by white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease that has killed 6.7 million bats in North America since 2006.
Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature."These results uncovered and quantified connections, both within and among species, that we never knew about before," said first author Joseph Hoyt, who led the study as a UC Santa Cruz graduate student and completed the analyses at Virginia Tech as a research scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.
"We had been seeing explosive epidemics where an entire bat population would become infected with white-nose syndrome within a month or two, and it was a mystery as to how that was happening. We are now able to more accurately explain and track the spread of white-nose syndrome, and our study has strong implications for predicting other epidemics," Hoyt said.
When we think about who we might get sick from, we tend to think of our social groups: family, friends, and co-workers. But, we forget about that brief interaction with an employee at the DMV, a barista at a coffee shop, or shared airspace on public transportation. People are aware of these interactions, but not how important they are to the spread of epidemics. In the past, these types of hidden interactions have been poorly understood because they are so difficult to quantify.
Second author on the study, Kate Langwig, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, said this study shows that infrequent and indirect connections, also called "cryptic" connections, among individuals play a far larger role in the transmission of disease than was previously understood.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-cryptic-disease-transmission-epidemics.html#jCp
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-cryptic-disease-transmission-epidemics.html
By Virginia Tech
Diseases have repeatedly spilled over from wildlife to humans, causing local to global epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, and Nipah.
A new study by researchers of disease transmission in bats has broad implications for understanding hidden or "cryptic" connections that can spread diseases between species and lead to large-scale outbreaks.
By dusting bats with a fluorescent powder that glows under ultraviolet light, Virginia Tech researchers Joseph Hoyt and Kate Langwig were able to trace the dynamics of disease transmission in bat species that have been devastated by white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease that has killed 6.7 million bats in North America since 2006.
Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature."These results uncovered and quantified connections, both within and among species, that we never knew about before," said first author Joseph Hoyt, who led the study as a UC Santa Cruz graduate student and completed the analyses at Virginia Tech as a research scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.
"We had been seeing explosive epidemics where an entire bat population would become infected with white-nose syndrome within a month or two, and it was a mystery as to how that was happening. We are now able to more accurately explain and track the spread of white-nose syndrome, and our study has strong implications for predicting other epidemics," Hoyt said.
When we think about who we might get sick from, we tend to think of our social groups: family, friends, and co-workers. But, we forget about that brief interaction with an employee at the DMV, a barista at a coffee shop, or shared airspace on public transportation. People are aware of these interactions, but not how important they are to the spread of epidemics. In the past, these types of hidden interactions have been poorly understood because they are so difficult to quantify.
Second author on the study, Kate Langwig, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, said this study shows that infrequent and indirect connections, also called "cryptic" connections, among individuals play a far larger role in the transmission of disease than was previously understood.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-cryptic-disease-transmission-epidemics.html#jCp