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Petter

Petter Pilesjö

Researcher

Petter

Identification of Visceral Leishmaniasis-Susceptible Areas using Spatial Modelling in Southern Caucasus

Author

  • Mohamadreza Rajabi
  • Petter Pilesjö
  • A Bazmani
  • A Mansourian

Summary, in English

This study explores the application of spatial modelling techniques to generate susceptibility maps for a neglected zoonotic disease, visceral leishmaniasis (VL), in an endemic area in southern Caucasus that includes Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The social and physical environment of southern Caucasus has been mainly characterized by the presence of several factors that are strongly associated with VL, which has caused a significant number of infections during the past decade. Three popular spatial modelling techniques, consisting of the weights of evidence, logistic regression and fuzzy logic methods, were evaluated and trained using a study area in north-western Iran where an inventory of highly infected areas and high-quality evidential factors was available. Model performance was assessed using the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) approach. According to the results of these assessments, the fuzzy logic method with γ = 0.5 was chosen for the prediction of VL incidence in southern Caucasus. The susceptibility map generated using the fuzzy logic method indicated that VL followed a spatial pattern at the conjunction of the three countries, which suggests that the prevalence of VL in southern Caucasus is socio-ecologically dependent.

Department/s

  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • Centre for Geographical Information Systems (GIS Centre)
  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World

Publishing year

2016-12-27

Language

English

Publication/Series

Zoonoses and Public Health

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
  • Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1863-1959