In a study published in the proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed gender disparities in the 2012 chikungunya
outbreak in Bangladesh and found that adult women had a 1.5 times higher risk
of contracting chikungunya compared to adult men. The researchers attributed
this difference to the fact that women in the Bangladeshi village studied were also
1.5 times more likely to spend more time at home during the day than men and
also that infected mosquitoes don’t migrate far from where they became infected.
Oftentimes, mosquitos infected members in the same home or in a nearby home. People
within the same household as an infected individual were 12% more likely to
also become infected, whereas people 50 m away had a 0.3% of infection.
Study methods: The researchers performed a retrospective
survey on each member of each household that agreed to participating in the
study. The survey collected behavioral data as well as recent history of
infectious disease. 175 cases were selected to perform blood testing to confirm
chikyngunya infection in the region. The researchers developed a Bayesian data
augmentation statistical model to determine the probability of contracting the
virus given the parameters used in the study. Some parameters in the study
included: gender, adult/child, antimosquito coil usage, transmission distance, and
proportions of infection in household.
This study points to the intersection of gender roles and
behavior and their impact on viral transmission disparities during epidemics.
Read more here: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/lazy-mosquitoes-spread-chikungunya-other-viruses-women-n679711
Read the actual study here: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/11/02/1611391113.abstract
~Jazzmin
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