Using climate data to predict mosquito-borne diseases
Researchers from Upstate led a study with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology and the Caribbwean Public Health Agency to determine whether climate data could be used to predict outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and the Zika virus. Their work was published in a special PLOS Medicine journal devoted to climate change and health. Anna Stewart Ibarra, PhD, describes how the research was conducted and what it means. She is the director of the Research Program for Latin America and the Caribbean in Upstate's Institute for Global Health and Translational Science. The research showed that dengue outbreaks in Barbados could be predicted using weather station data from 1999 to 2016.