부산대학교 도서관

Echinococcosis, caused by genus Echinococcus, is the most pathogenic zoonotic parasitic disease in the world. In Tibet of the People's Republic of China, echinococcosis refers principally to two types of severe zoonosis, cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE), which place a serious burden on public health and economy in the local community. However, research on the spatial epidemiology of echinococcosis remains inadequate in Tibet, China. Based on the recorded human echinococcosis data, maps of the spatial distribution of human CE and AE prevalence in Tibet were produced at city level and county level respectively, which show that the prevalence of echinococcosis in northern and western Tibet was much higher than that in other regions. We employ a geographical detector to explore the influencing factors for causing CE and AE while sorting information on the maps of disease prevalence and environment factors (e.g. terrain, population, and yak population). The results of our analysis showed that biological factors have the most impact on the prevalence of echinococcosis, of which the yak population contributes the most for CE, while the dog population contributes the most for AE. In addition, the interaction between various factors, as we found out, might further explain the disease prevalence, which indicated that the echinococcosis prevalence is not simply affected by one single factor, but by multiple factors that are correlated with each other complicatedly. Our results will provide an important reference for the evaluation of the echinococcosis risk, control projects, and prevention programs in Tibet. Author summary: Echinococcosis, a worldwide zoonosis caused by genus Echinococcus, is highly endemic in Tibet of China. CE and AE as two main types of Echinococcosis are causing serious health burdens, thereby attracting more attention to public health in Tibet. This work provides detailed geographical information about CE and AE prevalence based on the recorded human echinococcosis data from CDC. A geographical detector was employed to explore the potential environmental factors that influence these diseases and to quantify the specific contribution of each factor as well as discovering the interaction between factors. The results showed that biological factors have the most impact on the prevalence of echinococcosis, of which the yak population contributes most to CE while the dog population makes the most contribution to AE. Besides, the interactive results greatly improved the explanation of the two diseases, indicating that the echinococcosis prevalence is not simply affected by one factor, but by various interrelated factors. Such research can be beneficial to the evaluation, control projects, and prevention programs of the echinococcosis risk in Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]