Summary: Research Article
First evidence of West Nile virus amplification and relationship to
human infections
C. N. THEOPHILIDES*{, S. C. AHEARN{, E. S. BINKOWSKI{, W. S. PAUL§
and K. GIBBS§
{Center for Advance Research of Spatial Information, Hunter College of The City
University of New York, New York, NY 10021, USA
{Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunter College of The City University of
New York, New York, NY 10021, USA
§Epidemiology and Disease Control Programs, Chicago Department of Health, Chicago,
IL 60604, USA
(Received 16 March 2005; in final form 7 June 2005 )
The spatio-temporal relationship between unusual sightings of dead birds and
human West Nile virus infections has been observed in many studies and has
been proposed as an indicator of an intense amplification cycle between birds and
mosquitoes. However, to date, no single study has provided quantitative evidence
that the amplification cycle occurs at the local level and that it operates within
certain temporal parameters. Here, we use a novel geostatistical and spatial
analytic methodology and present the first evidence that the localized unusual
space­time correspondence of dead birds models the amplification cycle and that

Source: Ahearn, Sean - Department of Geography, Hunter College, City University of New York

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences