Prioritization of vector-borne diseases in Canada under current climate and projected climate change

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mran.2019.100089Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Vector-borne diseases are likely to be introduced or expand under climate change.

  • A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) tool was developed.

  • The tool can prioritize in a transparent and auditable manner.

  • The tool generates rankings for various stakeholders with different priorities.

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases are expected to be introduced, establish or expand geographically in Canada under climate change. The ability to prioritize diseases is critical because there are limited resources to address all risks and the decision to focus on one or a group of infectious diseases can come at the expense of not addressing others. As a result, the ability to conduct the prioritization in a transparent, auditable and in as objective a manner as possible is critical to ensure that the choices made are defendable. The objectives of this work were to develop a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) tool to prioritize vector-borne diseases of public health importance in Canada under current and projected climate. MCDA, an approach drawn from the decision sciences, is a valuable tool for decision-making when multiple criteria need to be considered. When considering all the criteria equally, Eastern equine encephalitis ranks as the highest priority non-endemic disease followed by Powassan virus disease, La Crosse encephalitis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Plague, Chikungunya virus infection and St. Louis encephalitis disease. In the case of endemic diseases: Cache Valley virus disease ranks highest, followed by Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Babesiosis and Human granulocytic anaplasmosis. The tool has the ability to also generate rankings for different stakeholders with different priorities thereby contributing significantly to the decision making process.

Keywords

Climate change
Vector-borne
Prioritization
Decision-analysis
Emerging infectious disease
Multi-criteria

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