ArticleParasites & vectors2024
A geospatial analysis of local intermediate snail host distributions provides insight into schistosomiasis risk within under-sampled areas of southern Lake Malawi.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development of a dynamical model to enhance understanding of epidemiology of schistosomiasis in school-aged-children.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Predicting current habitat suitability for intermediate snail hosts of urogenital and intestinal schistosomiasis in the Lower Shire Valley floodplain of southern Malawi.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Impact of Climate Change on Schistosomiasis Transmission and Distribution-Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- A first report of Biomphalaria pfeifferi in the Lower Shire Valley, Southern Malawi, a major intermediate snail host species for intestinal schistosomiasis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlong the southern shoreline of Lake Malawi, the incidence of schistosomiasis is increasing with snails of the genera Bulinus and Biomphalaria transmitting urogenital and intestinal schistosomiasis, respectively. Since the underlying distribution of snails is partially known, often being focal, developing pragmatic spatial models that interpolate snail information across under-sampled regions is required to understand and assess current and future risk of schistosomiasis.
methodsA secondary geospatial analysis of recently collected malacological and environmental survey data was undertaken. Using a Bayesian Poisson latent Gaussian process model, abundance data were fitted for Bulinus and Biomphalaria. Interpolating the abundance of snails along the shoreline (given their relative distance along the shoreline) was achieved by smoothing, using extracted environmental rainfall, land surface temperature (LST), evapotranspiration, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and soil type covariate data for all predicted locations. Our adopted model used a combination of two-dimensional (2D) and one dimensional (1D) mapping.
resultsA significant association between normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and abundance of Bulinus spp. was detected (log risk ratio - 0.83, 95% CrI - 1.57, - 0.09). A qualitatively similar association was found between NDVI and Biomphalaria sp. but was not statistically significant (log risk ratio - 1.42, 95% CrI - 3.09, 0.10). Analyses of all other environmental data were considered non-significant.
conclusionsThe spatial range in which interpolation of snail distributions is possible appears < 10km owing to fine-scale biotic and abiotic heterogeneities. The forthcoming challenge is to refine geospatial sampling frameworks with future opportunities to map schistosomiasis within actual or predicted snail distributions. In so doing, this would better reveal local environmental transmission possibilities.
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