ReviewAnnals of the Entomological Society of America2021
Human-Mosquito Contact: A Missing Link in Our Understanding of Mosquito-Borne Disease Transmission Dynamics.
Review in Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of cattle on vector-borne disease risk to humans: A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Pooled it
- The biting rate of Aedes aegypti and its variability: A systematic review (1970-2022).PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- How climate change affects mosquito-borne infectious disease: The different trajectories of malaria and dengue.Science advances · 2026Review
- Making scents of mosquito lures: semiochemical attractants for adult mosquitoes.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- The role of tropical cyclones in accelerating dengue transmission: insights from field experiments and dynamical modelling.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Species diversity and human biting rates of malaria and dengue vectors in central and northern Benin.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Unmasking non-malarial mosquito-borne infections among febrile children in malaria-endemic regions of western Kenya.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Two species of Aedes show altitudinal variation in temperature preference in the islands of the Gulf of Guinea.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Household characteristics, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and malaria prevalence among children aged 6-59 months in Ghana: an analysis of the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Vector Potential Index: Bridging Competence and Contribution as an Integrative Measure of Relative Transmission Capability.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Gaussian process emulation for exploring complex infectious disease models.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Once bitten, twice shy: A modeling framework for incorporating heterogeneous mosquito biting into transmission models.Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2025Article
- The toolbox for mosquito vector research.Parasites & vectors · 2025Review
- Optimizing crop varietal mixtures for viral disease management: A case study on cassava virus epidemics.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Gaussian Process Emulation for Exploring Complex Infectious Disease Models.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Temperature and Resources Interact to Affect Transmission via Host Foraging Rate and Susceptibility.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- From Bites to Bytes: Evaluating User Engagement and Mosquito Bite Exposure Patterns with the Bite Diary Smartphone Application.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2025Article
- Spatial inference of Culex pipiens abundance and biting activity distribution in the Netherlands using citizen science.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the critical role that contact between hosts and vectors, through vector bites, plays in driving vector-borne disease (VBD) transmission, transmission risk is primarily studied through the lens of vector density and overlooks host-vector contact dynamics. This review article synthesizes current knowledge of host-vector contact with an emphasis on mosquito bites. It provides a framework including biological and mathematical definitions of host-mosquito contact rate, blood-feeding rate, and per capita biting rates. We describe how contact rates vary and how this variation is influenced by mosquito and vertebrate factors. Our framework challenges a classic assumption that mosquitoes bite at a fixed rate determined by the duration of their gonotrophic cycle. We explore alternative ecological assumptions based on the functional response, blood index, forage ratio, and ideal free distribution within a mechanistic host-vector contact model. We highlight that host-vector contact is a critical parameter that integrates many factors driving disease transmission. A renewed focus on contact dynamics between hosts and vectors will contribute new insights into the mechanisms behind VBD spread and emergence that are sorely lacking. Given the framework for including contact rates as an explicit component of mathematical models of VBD, as well as different methods to study contact rates empirically to move the field forward, researchers should explicitly test contact rate models with empirical studies. Such integrative studies promise to enhance understanding of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting host-vector contact rates and thus are critical to understand both the mechanisms driving VBD emergence and guiding their prevention and control.
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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.