Spatiotemporal association of rapid urbanization and water-body distribution on hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome: A case study in the city of Xi'an, China

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Jan 10;16(1):e0010094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010094. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a zoonosis characterized by clinical features of high fever, hemorrhage, and renal damage. China has the largest number of HFRS cases worldwide, accounting for over 90% of the total reported cases. In this paper, we used surveyed HFRS data and satellite imagery to conduct geostatistical analysis for investigating the associations of rapid urbanization, water bodies, and other factors on the spatiotemporal dynamics of HFRS from year 2005 to 2018 in Xi'an City, Northwest China. The results revealed an evident epidemic aggregation in the incidence of HFRS within Xi'an City with a phenomenal fluctuation in periodic time series. Rapid urbanization was found to greatly affect the HFRS incidence in two different time phases. HFRS caused by urbanization influences farmers to a lesser extent than it does to non-farmers. The association of water bodies with the HFRS incidence rate was found to be higher within the radii of 696.15 m and 1575.39 m, which represented significant thresholds. The results also showed that geomatics approaches can be used for spatiotemporally investigating the HFRS dynamic characteristics and supporting effective allocations of resources to formulate strategies for preventing epidemics.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • China / epidemiology
  • Cities / epidemiology
  • Disease Vectors
  • Geography
  • Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / epidemiology*
  • Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / mortality
  • Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome / prevention & control*
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Murinae / virology
  • Orthohantavirus / classification
  • Primary Prevention / methods*
  • Rats
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Satellite Imagery
  • Seasons
  • Urbanization

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 81803289 (K.L.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 42071368 (L.S.), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, grant number 2020JM-329 (K.L.), and 2020 National Innovation Training Program for college students at Wuhan University, grant number 202010486083 (B.G.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.