Ecology of scrub typhus
Scrub typhus is a lethal diseases prevalent mainly in western Pacific. Transmitted by larval trombiclulid mites, scrub typhus infects around 1 million people per year, but ecological determinants of the mites remain largely unknown. For the past few years, we have studied how Taiwan's acceding to World Trade Organization might have increased human risks to scrub typhus due to the abandonment of rice paddies under intense international price competition. Because rodents are the primary hosts of trombiculid mites, we also investigated how the introduction of the exotic Pacific rat Rattus exulans would affect the disease dynamics of scrub typhus in eastern Taiwan. Geostatistical models were developed for human cases of scrub typhus and murine typhus in collaboration with Dr. Nicola Wardrop and Professor Peter Atkinson in UK. We work mainly with Dr. Hsi-Chieh Wang of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control on the study of scrub typhus. Currently, our study focuses on Peng-hu (Pescadores) and Lanyu (Orchid Island), two islands with very high prevalence of scrub typhus in Taiwan. |
Migratory birds in the international dispersal of tick-borne diseases
Migratory birds can help spread ticks and tick-borne diseases across countries. Past studies on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Taiwan have principally targeted small mammals, leaving the role of birds in the maintenance of ticks and tick-borne diseases unexplored. In collaboration with Dr. Yu-Cheng Hsu of Dong Hwa University, Cheng-Te Yao of Endemic Research Center, and Dr. Hsi-Chieh Wang of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, we have discovered several tick species and tick-borne pathogens not recorded in Taiwan before. |