Contributions of citizen scientists to arthropod vector data in the age of digital epidemiology. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Citizen-collected arthropod vectors are useful for epidemiological studies of vector-borne disease, especially since the vectors encountered by the public are the subset of vectors in nature that have a disproportionate impact on health. Programs integrating educational efforts with collecting efforts may be particularly effective for public health initiatives, resulting in an empowered public with knowledge of vector-borne disease prevention. Citizen science programs have been successfully implemented for the collection of unprecedented sample sets of mosquitos, ticks, and triatomines. Cyber infrastructure employed in digital epidemiology-including websites, email, mobile phone apps, and social media platforms-has facilitated vector citizen science initiatives to assess disease risk over vast spatial and temporal scales, advancing research to mitigate vector-borne disease risk.

published proceedings

  • Curr Opin Insect Sci

altmetric score

  • 7.85

author list (cited authors)

  • Hamer, S. A., Curtis-Robles, R., & Hamer, G. L.

citation count

  • 27

complete list of authors

  • Hamer, Sarah A||Curtis-Robles, Rachel||Hamer, Gabriel L

publication date

  • January 2018