By Robert C. Jones Jr.
UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (June 21, 2016) – Credit a 2011 article in the journal Science for inspiring University of Miami researcher Shigui Ruan to create a mathematical model on the impact of mosquito-borne and sexual transmission on the spread and control of Zika.

That article, “Sex After a Field Trip Yields Scientific First,” reported on a Colorado State University vector biologist who, after returning from a research trip to Senegal, passed along the Zika virus to his wife in what is believed to be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease.

“It [the journal article] really piqued my curiosity,” said Ruan, who recently published the research results of his mathematical model in the journal Scientific Reports.

This isn’t the first time Ruan has used math to investigate vector-borne diseases. Four years ago, he and a colleague proposed a mathematical model to study malaria transmission, determining that the disease can potentially die out if movement of exposed, infectious, or recovered humans between two regions remains weak.

Ruan is actually part of a consortium of University-wide researchers in multiple disciplines who have been collaborating for years on different vector-borne studies. From an investigation in Honduras focusing on the distribution of breeding sites of the Aedes aegypti—the primary vector for Zika—to a mosquito-control project in Guayaquil, Ecuador, that targets the sugar-feeding behavior of male and female Aedes aegypti, their research runs the gamut.

“We are all looking at similar kinds of questions but through the lenses of different disciplines,” said Chris Cosner, a professor of mathematics who has worked with Ruan on a study focusing on Rift Valley fever in Egypt. “Vector-borne diseases are complicated enough that it’s pretty hard to get a good handle on them with one set of tools. You have to go through a few different disciplines. Biologists, epidemiologists, mathematicians, geographers—everybody brings a little different set of tools and insights to the problem.”

Learn more about UM’s vector-borne research at http://climate.miami.edu.