Scaling Relationships
Malaria and Metrics across the Spectrum of Transmission Intensity
If we want to manage malaria, we need to measure it and set rational expectations about how changes in malaria transmission would affect the incidence of malaria and the prevalence of infection with malaria parasites. These ideas originate with Ronald Ross, and we can trace them forward through development of metrics to measure exposure, infection, disease, and mortality.
Exposure – We are interested in using the entomological inoculation rate (EIR) as our measure of exposure to understand malaria. In particular, we want to understand malaria in terms of the average annual EIR (aEIR), its seasonal pattern, and inter-annual variability.
Mosquitoes – The aEIR is related to mosquito population density
Exposure and Infection
Two measures of malaria are incidence and prevalence. Malaria prevalence, traditionally called the parasite rate (PR), can be measured at any point in time by taking a cross-sectional survey and examining blood for parasites using one of several diagnostics.
EIR-PR
Vignette: EIR-PR
A large data set describing paired estimates of the EIR and the PR was first published in a paper led by John Beier [1]. The data was expanded and it has been analyzed several times [1–4,SmithDL2005_EIRvPR?]. This website was designed, in part, to provide access to EIR-PR data in a way that could be updated and that would facilitate new analyses.
EIR-FoI
Vignette: EIR-FoI
George Macdonald reviewed the relationship between the EIR and the FoI for the first time in 1950 [MacdonaldG1950Epidemiology?]. A large data set describing paired estimates of the EIR and the FoI was first published in a paper led by me [SmithDL2010_InefficientTransmission?]. This website was designed, in part, to provide access to EIR-FoI data in a way that could be updated and that would facilitate new analyses.