Topic: Prevention and control of Zika as a mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted disease

Lecturer: Professor Gao Daozhou, Oriental scholar of Shanghai Normal University.

Time: Aug 23 2016 Tue 10:30-11:30 AM

Add: Lecture Rm 145 #, Math Building, New Campus

Synopsis:

The ongoing Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in the Americas poses a major global public health emergency. While ZIKV is transmitted from human to human by bites of Aedes mosquitoes, recent evidence indicates that ZIKV can also be transmitted via sexual contact with cases of sexually transmitted ZIKV reported in Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, German, Italy, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and the USA. Yet, the role of sexual transmission on the spread and control of ZIKV infection is not well-understood. We introduce a mathematical model to investigate the impact of mosquito-borne and sexual transmission on the spread and control of ZIKV and calibrate the model to ZIKV epidemic data from Brazil, Colombia, and El Salvador. Parameter estimates yielded a basic reproduction number R0 = 2.055 (95% CI: 0.523–6.300), in which the percentage contribution of sexual transmission is 3.044% (95% CI: 0.123–45.73). Our sensitivity analyses indicate that R0 is most sensitive to the biting rate and mortality rate of mosquitoes while sexual transmission increases the risk of infection and epidemic size and prolongs the outbreak. Prevention and control efforts against ZIKV should target both the mosquito-borne and sexual transmission routes.

Biography:

Gao Zhoudao graduated from Dept. of Math at Anhui University in 2004 as BS and obtained MS in Mathematics at University of Science and Technology of China. From 2007 to 2012, he obtained PhD in Mathematics at University of Miami. Later on, he worked at UCSF as pos doctor from June 2012 to November 2015. In December 2015, he joined Shanghai Normal University as professor of Oriental Scholar of Shanghai. Prof. Gao has published over 10 papers on SIAM J. Appl. Math., Sci. Rep., Bull. Math. Biol., Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg etc. His representative research areas are: 1) Influence of transmitted disease pervasion resulted in population mobility and behavior change; 2) transmission and control of sudden infectious disease; 3) treatments optimization of infectious disease; 4) The tragedy of the commons by use of antibiotics.