title: Analysis of spatial mobility in subjects from a Dengue endemic urban locality in Morelos State, Mexico.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mathematical models and field data suggest that human mobility is an important driver for Dengue virus transmission. Nonetheless little is known on this matter due the lack of instruments for precise mobility quantification and study design difficulties.
  
  
  METHODS
  We carried out a cohort-nested, case-control study with 126 individuals (42 cases, 42 intradomestic controls and 42 population controls) with the goal of describing human mobility patterns of recently Dengue virus-infected subjects, and comparing them with those of non-infected subjects living in an urban endemic locality. Mobility was quantified using a GPS-data logger registering waypoints at 60-second intervals for a minimum of 15 natural days.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although absolute displacement was highly biased towards the intradomestic and peridomestic areas, occasional displacements exceeding a 100-Km radius from the center of the studied locality were recorded for all three study groups and individual displacements were recorded traveling across six states from central Mexico. Additionally, cases had a larger number of visits out of the municipality´s administrative limits when compared to intradomestic controls (cases: 10.4 versus intradomestic controls: 2.9, p = 0.0282). We were able to identify extradomestic places within and out of the locality that were independently visited by apparently non-related infected subjects, consistent with houses, working and leisure places.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of this study show that human mobility in a small urban setting exceeded that considered by local health authority's administrative limits, and was different between recently infected and non-infected subjects living in the same household. These observations provide important insights about the role that human mobility may have in Dengue virus transmission and persistence across endemic geographic areas that need to be taken into account when planning preventive and control measures. Finally, these results are a valuable reference when setting the parameters for future mathematical modeling studies.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
authors.forename: Jorge Abelardo
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Falcón-Lezama
authors.affiliation: Subdirección de Geografía Médica, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Santos-Luna
authors.affiliation: Subdirección de Geografía Médica, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Román-Pérez
authors.affiliation: OLFIS, Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia.|Universidad de Santander, Campus Universitario, Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia.
authors.forename: Ruth Aralí
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Martínez-Vega
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Marco Arieli
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Herrera-Valdez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Computación, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Ángel Fernando
authors.initials: ÁF
authors.lastname: Kuri-Morales
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Subsecretaría de Prevención y Promoción de la Salud, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Pablo Antonio
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Kuri-Morales
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Proyectos Especiales de Investigación Sociomédica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Malaquías
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López-Cervantes
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.|Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas-Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: José
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3682-1938
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramos-Castañeda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002947:Cities; D003715:Dengue / Q000635:transmission*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014195:Travel; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult