ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2021
An exploration of the protective effect of rodent species richness on the geographical expansion of Lassa fever in West Africa.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessing the Environmental Drivers of Lassa Fever in West Africa: A Systematic Review.Viruses · 2025Pooled it
- One Health implementation in Ghana: a perspective on policy development and institutional change.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Association between bat-predator species richness and Nipah virus spillover risk in Bangladesh.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Mapping global zoonotic niche and interregional transmission risk of monkeypox: a retrospective observational study.Globalization and health · 2023Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLassa fever (LF) is one of the most devastating rodent-borne diseases in West Africa, causing thousands of deaths annually. The geographical expansion of LF is also a concern; cases were recently identified in Ghana and Benin. Previous ecological studies have suggested that high natural-host biodiversity reduces the likelihood of spillover transmission of rodent-borne diseases, by suppressing the activities of reservoir species. However, the association of biodiversity with the geographical expansion of LF has not been the subject of epidemiological studies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsWe conducted a spatial analysis based on sociodemographic, geographical, and ecological data, and found that higher rodent species richness was significantly associated with a lower risk of LF emergence in West Africa from 2008 to 2017 (Odds Ratio = 0.852, 95% Credible Interval = 0.745-0.971). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results reinforce the importance of the 'One Health' approach by demonstrating that a high level of biodiversity could benefit human health.
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