Dataset Information

Predicting Dengue Fever Outbreaks in French Guiana Using Climate Indicators.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dengue fever epidemic dynamics are driven by complex interactions between hosts, vectors and viruses. Associations between climate and dengue have been studied around the world, but the results have shown that the impact of the climate can vary widely from one study site to another. In French Guiana, climate-based models are not available to assist in developing an early warning system. This study aims to evaluate the potential of using oceanic and atmospheric conditions to help predict dengue fever outbreaks in French Guiana.

Methodology/principal findings

Lagged correlations and composite analyses were performed to identify the climatic conditions that characterized a typical epidemic year and to define the best indices for predicting dengue fever outbreaks during the period 1991-2013. A logistic regression was then performed to build a forecast model. We demonstrate that a model based on summer Equatorial Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures and Azores High sea-level pressure had predictive value and was able to predict 80% of the outbreaks while incorrectly predicting only 15% of the non-epidemic years. Predictions for 2014-2015 were consistent with the observed non-epidemic conditions, and an outbreak in early 2016 was predicted.

Conclusions/significance

These findings indicate that outbreak resurgence can be modeled using a simple combination of climate indicators. This might be useful for anticipating public health actions to mitigate the effects of major outbreaks, particularly in areas where resources are limited and medical infrastructures are generally insufficient.

SUBMITTER: Adde A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4851397 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Predicting Dengue Fever Outbreaks in French Guiana Using Climate Indicators.

Adde Antoine A Roucou Pascal P Mangeas Morgan M Ardillon Vanessa V Desenclos Jean-Claude JC Rousset Dominique D Girod Romain R Briolant Sébastien S Quenel Philippe P Flamand Claude C

PLoS neglected tropical diseases 20160429 4

<h4>Background</h4>Dengue fever epidemic dynamics are driven by complex interactions between hosts, vectors and viruses. Associations between climate and dengue have been studied around the world, but the results have shown that the impact of the climate can vary widely from one study site to another. In French Guiana, climate-based models are not available to assist in developing an early warning system. This study aims to evaluate the potential of using oceanic and atmospheric conditions to he ...[more]

PMID: 27128312

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Project description:BackgroundClimate change is expected to exacerbate diarrhoea outbreaks across the developing world, most notably in Sub-Saharan countries such as South Africa. In South Africa, diseases related to diarrhoea outbreak is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. In this study, we modelled the impacts of climate change on diarrhoea with various machine learning (ML) methods to predict daily outbreak of diarrhoea cases in nine South African provinces.MethodsWe applied two deep Learning DL techniques, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long-Short term Memory Networks (LSTMs); and a Support Vector Machine (SVM) to predict daily diarrhoea cases over the different South African provinces by incorporating climate information. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) was used to generate synthetic data which was used to augment the available data-set. Furthermore, Relevance Estimation and Value Calibration (REVAC) was used to tune the parameters of the ML methods to optimize the accuracy of their predictions. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to investigate the contribution of the different climate factors to the diarrhoea prediction method.ResultsOur results showed that all three ML methods were appropriate for predicting daily diarrhoea cases with respect to the selected climate variables in each South African province. However, the level of accuracy for each method varied across different experiments, with the deep learning methods outperforming the SVM method. Among the deep learning techniques, the CNN method performed best when only real-world data-set was used, while the LSTM method outperformed the other methods when the real-world data-set was augmented with synthetic data. Across the provinces, the accuracy of all three ML methods improved by at least 30 percent when data augmentation was implemented. In addition, REVAC improved the accuracy of the CNN method by about 2.5% in each province. Our parameter sensitivity analysis revealed that the most influential climate variables to be considered when predicting outbreak of diarrhoea in South Africa were precipitation, humidity, evaporation and temperature conditions.ConclusionsOverall, experiments indicated that the prediction capacity of our DL methods (Convolutional Neural Networks) was found to be superior (with statistical significance) in terms of prediction accuracy across most provinces. This study's results have important implications for the development of automated early warning systems for diarrhoea (and related disease) outbreaks across the globe.

Dataset Information

Predicting Dengue Fever Outbreaks in French Guiana Using Climate Indicators.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

Predicting Dengue Fever Outbreaks in French Guiana Using Climate Indicators.

Similar Datasets

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