Introduction Mathematical models and field data suggest that human mobility is an important driver for Dengue virus transmission. Nonetheless little is known on this matter due the lack of instruments for precise mobility quantification and study design difficulties. Materials and methods We carried out a cohort-nested, case-control study with 126 individuals (42 cases, 42 intradomestic controls and 42 population controls) with the goal of describing human mobility patterns of recently Dengue virus-infected subjects, and comparing them with those of non-infected subjects living in an urban endemic locality. Mobility was quantified using a GPS-data logger registering waypoints at 60-second intervals for a minimum of 15 natural days. Results Although absolute displacement was highly biased towards the intradomestic and peridomestic areas, occasional displacements exceeding a 100-Km radius from the center of the studied locality were recorded for all three study groups and individual displacements were recorded traveling across six states from central Mexico. Additionally, cases had a larger number of visits out of the municipality´s administrative limits when compared to intradomestic controls (cases: 10.4 versus intradomestic controls: 2.9, p = 0.0282). We were able to identify extradomestic places within and out of the locality that were independently visited by apparently non-related infected subjects, consistent with houses, working and leisure places. Conclusions Results of this study show that human mobility in a small urban setting exceeded that considered by local health authority’s administrative limits, and was different between recently infected and non-infected subjects living in the same household. These observations provide important insights about the role that human mobility may have in Dengue virus transmission and persistence across endemic geographic areas that need to be taken into account when planning preventive and control measures. Finally, these results are a valuable reference when setting the parameters for future mathematical modeling studies.
Centro de Investigaciones sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México;Subdirección de Geografía Médica, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México;Subdirección de Geografía Médica, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México;OLFIS, Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia;Universidad de Santander, Campus Universitario, Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia;Instituto de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México;Departamento de Computación, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Ciudad de México, México;Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom;Subsecretaría de Prevención y Promoción de la Salud, Ciudad de México, México;Unidad de Proyectos Especiales de Investigación Sociomédica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México;Centro de Investigaciones sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México;Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas-Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America
Recommended Citation:
Jorge Abelardo Falcón-Lezama,René Santos-Luna,Susana Román-Pérez,et al. Analysis of spatial mobility in subjects from a Dengue endemic urban locality in Morelos State, Mexico[J]. PLOS ONE,2017-01-01,12(2)