Open AccessA climate‐based early warning system to predict outbreaks of Ross River virus disease in the Broome region of Western Australia
Author(s) -
McIver Lachlan,
Xiao Jianguo,
Lindsay Michael D.A.,
Rowe Trenna,
Yun Grace
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00480.x
Subject(s) - ross river virus , outbreak , geography , climate change , abundance (ecology) , early warning system , warning system , ecology , biology , virus , virology , alphavirus , engineering , aerospace engineering
[Extract] We note with interest the excellent article by Williams et al. 'Environmental and entomological factors determining Ross River virus activity in the River Murray Valley of South Australia' published in this journal early last year. The efforts of Williams and colleagues to construct local government scale models of Ross River virus (RRV) activity based on environmental and mosquito abundance variables have the potential to lead to effective locally-based early warning systems to predict outbreaks of RRV disease in the study areas. The body of research into the ecological variables related to RRV activity conducted nationally, in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, south-west Western Australia and, more recently, South Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory appears to confirm that several environmental variables, including rainfall, temperature, humidity, tide height (or even river height as demonstrated in the article by Williams et al.) may be correlated with mosquito abundance and subsequent activity of RRV