ArticleJournal of medical entomology2020
An Evaluation of the Flea Index as a Predictor of Plague Epizootics in the West Nile Region of Uganda.
Article in Journal of medical entomology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Study on the aggregation patterns of fleas parasitizing the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) in the Junggar Basin plague natural focus.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Ecological and environmental conditions correlate with flea population within human habitations in a plague focus, Mbulu district, Tanzania.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Molecular detection and characterization ofInfection ecology & epidemiology · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Risk Zonation Analysis of Rodents and Surface-Parasitic Fleas - Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, 2013-2021.China CDC weekly · 2024Article
- Impact of Sanitation on Rodent Pullulation and Plague Status in an Informal Settlement on the Outskirts of Mahajanga (Madagascar).Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Flea Burden on Rodents and Its Associated Determinants in Plague-Endemic Localities of Karatu District, Tanzania: A Cross-Sectional Study.Public health challenges · 2024Article
- Surveillance of Fleas and Their Small Mammal Hosts for Plague Risks in Some Main Seaports of the Islands of the Southwestern Indian Ocean.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2024Article
- Climate-driven marmot-plague dynamics in Mongolia and China.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Estimating parasite infrapopulation size given imperfect detection: Proof-of-concept with ectoparasitic fleas on prairie dogs.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Flea index predicts plague epizootics among great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) in the Junggar Basin China plague focus.Parasites & vectors · 2022Article
- Exploring and Mitigating Plague for One Health Purposes.Current tropical medicine reports · 2022Article
- Assembling a safe and effective toolbox for integrated flea control and plague mitigation: Fipronil experiments with prairie dogs.PloS one · 2022Article
- A Novel Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Rapid Detection ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Plague is a low incidence flea-borne zoonosis that is often fatal if treatment is delayed or inadequate. Outbreaks occur sporadically and human cases are often preceded by epizootics among rodents. Early recognition of epizootics coupled with appropriate prevention measures should reduce plague morbidity and mortality. For nearly a century, the flea index (a measure of fleas per host) has been used as a measure of risk for epizootic spread and human plague case occurrence, yet the practicality and effectiveness of its use in surveillance programs has not been evaluated rigorously. We sought to determine whether long-term monitoring of the Xenopsylla flea index on hut-dwelling rats in sentinel villages in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda accurately predicted plague occurrence in the surrounding parish. Based on observations spanning ~6 yr, we showed that on average, the Xenopsylla flea index increased prior to the start of the annual plague season and tended to be higher in years when plague activity was reported in humans or rodents compared with years when it was not. However, this labor-intensive effort had limited spatial coverage and was a poor predictor of plague activity within sentinel parishes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.