New map details threat of Zika across Europe, U.S.

[Pathfinder]

[h=1]New map details threat of Zika across Europe, U.S.[/h] Wed, 08/10/2016

LAWRENCE ? With Zika sparking anxiety at the Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, and now being transmitted in Florida through contact with mosquitoes, accurately mapping the distribution of the virus is increasingly urgent.
Accounting for a host of often-overlooked drivers of transmission, a team of University of Kansas researchers has mapped Zika risk around the world with unprecedented resolution while considering more factors than previous models.

• The mapping effort uses ecological niche modeling, a technique used to predict distributions of species, to show the virus? powerful ability to spread in South and Central America.
• This study is the first to evaluate the risk of Zika virus transmission in Europe, which appears relatively low.
• Research suggests parts of the southern U.S., including parts of Florida, Texas and Louisiana, are vulnerable to transmission of the virus.

?It?s the first detailed map that weighs different drivers of transmission,? said Abdallah Samy, who headed the research at the KU Biodiversity Institute. ?We assessed different combinations of variables to see what are the major drivers ? such as climate, or socioeconomics or people?s ability to access certain areas ? and in the final map we merge all the variables.?
The resulting map predicts the likelihood of Zika exposure in the coming years by segmenting Earth?s landmasses into squares of 5-by-5 kilometers each and crunching the numbers for each of them.
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http://news.ku.edu/2016/08/08/new-map-details-threat-zika-across-europe-and-us