Direct onshore wind predicts daily swimmer's itch (avian schistosome) incidence at a Michigan beach
Autor: | Alan R. Flory, Jason P. Sckrabulis, Thomas R. Raffel |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Michigan Time Factors Trematode Infections Wind Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Bathing Beaches Wind speed 03 medical and health sciences Sea breeze Schistosomatidae medicine Animals Humans Skin Diseases Parasitic Swimmer's itch Morning Shore geography geography.geographical_feature_category Incidence Wind direction medicine.disease Current (stream) 030104 developmental biology Infectious Diseases Oceanography Animal Science and Zoology Parasitology Submarine pipeline Research Article |
Zdroj: | Parasitology |
ISSN: | 1469-8161 0031-1820 |
DOI: | 10.1017/s0031182020000074 |
Popis: | Swimmer's itch (SI) is a painful rash caused by skin penetration by free-swimming infectious cercariae of avian schistosomes, snail-borne helminth parasites related to the causative agents of human schistosomiasis. The goal of this study was to determine if commonly collected environmental data could be used to predict daily fluctuations in SI incidence at an inland beach in northwestern Michigan. Lifeguards collected daily data over four summers, including the number of self-reported SI cases, total swimmers, water temperature, wind speed and wind direction. Mixed-effects binomial regression revealed that wind direction, wind speed and time of day were the best predictors of daily SI risk. Swimmers entering the water in the morning or on days with direct onshore wind perpendicular to the shoreline had the greatest SI risk. However, there was a negative effect of wind speed after accounting for direction, where SI risk was greatest on days with a gentle breeze originating directly offshore. These results suggest that at this beach, direct onshore winds generate a surface-water current that causes SI cercariae to aggregate in the shallow waters used by swimmers. Data are needed from additional sites to confirm whether the onshore wind is a generally important driver of SI incidence. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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