Deforestation Increases the Risk of Scrub Typhus in Korea

Kyung-Duk Min, Ju-Yeun Lee, Yeonghwa So and Sung-il Cho
Additional contact information
Kyung-Duk Min: Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Ju-Yeun Lee: Department of Public Health Science, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Yeonghwa So: Department of Public Health Science, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Sung-il Cho: Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-10

Abstract: Background : Scrub typhus is an important public health issue in Korea. Risk factors for scrub typhus include both individual-level factors and environmental drivers, and some are related to the increased density of vector mites and rodents, the natural hosts of the mites. In this regard, deforestation is a potential risk factor, because the deforestation-induced secondary growth of scrub vegetation may increase the densities of mites and rodents. To examine this hypothesis, this study investigated the association between scrub typhus and deforestation. Methods : We acquired district-level data for 2006–2017, including the number of cases of scrub typhus reported annually, deforestation level, and other covariates. Deforestation was assessed using preprocessed remote-sensing satellite data. Bayesian regression models, including Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated Poisson, and zero-inflated negative binomial models, were examined, and spatial autocorrelation was considered in hierarchical models. A sensitivity analysis was conducted using different accumulation periods for the deforestation level to examine the robustness of the association. Results : The final models showed a significant association between deforestation and the incidence of scrub typhus (relative risk = 1.20, 95% credible interval = 1.15–1.24). The sensitivity analysis gave consistent results, and a potential long-term effect of deforestation for up to 5 years was shown. Conclusion : The results support the potential public health benefits of forest conservation by suppressing the risk of scrub typhus, implying the need for strong engagement of public health sectors in conservation issues from a One Health perspective.

Keywords: scrub typhus; spatiotemporal models; deforestation; One Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1518/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1518/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1518-:d:227002

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().