Many infectious disease are closely related to water environment and they can be classified as:
Water-Borne or Water-Washed Disease – Caused by fecal-originated pathogens and transmitted in contaminated water due to lack of sanitation and hygiene.
Water-Related Disease – Caused by pathogens which life cycle is associated with vectors that breed in water.
Water-Based Disease – Caused by bacteria or viruses that partially spend its life cycle in aquatic-living organisms as intermediate hosts.
Our research group focuses on several water-related diseases, including Schistosomiasis and West Nile Virus infection, in humans and investigate the problems from a hydrological perspective.
Schistosomiasis is a water-based disease transmitted by contact of pathogens in water where inhabits snails. Snails are a main parasitic carrier and our work addresses snail population dynamics in the Poyang Lake in China using geospatial approaches to locate snail habitats in order to prevent the disease.
West Nile Virus is a water-related disease which is transmitted through mosquito vectors. Our study integrates the mosquito life cycle and the dynamics of a stagnant water habitat, which is the preferred oviposition sites for mosquitoes, to simulate the West Nile Virus transmission in the Northern Great Plains.