Advanced Geographic Data Sciences & Modeling for Vector-Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases

In an age when global viruses such as COVID-19 and other emerging (& re-emerging) pathogens are an urgent public health priority for research, the World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasised the critical need for continued efforts to prevent the transmission of vector-borne illnesses as well as other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). While focusing on solution for COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases, the WHO has implored the global community not to relent or allow these public health threats to overshadow the global agenda of reducing the burden of vector-borne diseases and NTDs.

With that said, vector-borne diseases and NTDs continue to pose significant public health challenges, particularly in low- and middle-income countries in the Global South, where environmental change, rapid and uneven urbanisation, climate variability, and population mobility are reshaping patterns of disease transmission. In the same vein, due to climate change, their geographic extent of where these illnesses are transmitted are steadily expanding into the Global North, and it may not be long before we start to see cases in European or American locations where we least expect them to be. At the same time, advances in spatial data science, statistical modelling, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and computational epidemiology have created new opportunities to understand disease dynamics, identify populations at risk, and inform targeted interventions. Despite these methodological developments, important gaps still remain in translating advanced analytical approaches into practical tools for disease surveillance, forecasting, and control. There is a growing need for interdisciplinary research that integrates epidemiological, environmental, climatic, demographic, and geospatial data to support evidence-based decision-making.

This Research Topic seeks to showcase innovative applications of spatial, statistical, mathematical, and computational methods to vector-borne diseases and NTDs. We welcome contributions that improve understanding of disease transmission processes, risk mapping, outbreak prediction, intervention targeting, and health system preparedness. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, Bayesian disease mapping, spatial epidemiology, mathematical and agent-based modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence, remote sensing applications, climate-sensitive disease modelling, uncertainty quantification, and the integration of novel data streams into disease surveillance systems.

We encourage submissions from researchers from around the world working across epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, geography, ecology, environmental sciences, and related disciplines. The disease focus can be broad, as long as it falls within the realms of vector-borne diseases and other non-vector-borne NTDs. Such examples include, but are not limited to, the following diseases and infections:
• Malaria
• Onchocerciasis
• Arborviruses (e.g., Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, etc.)
• Trypanosomiasis
• Leishmaniasis
• Schistosomiasis (e.g., S. Mansoni, S. Haematobium, S. Japonicum, etc.)
• Helminth Infection (e.g., Hookworm, Ascaris Lumbricoides, Trichuris Trichiura, etc.)
• Trachoma
• Buruli Ulcer

Please note that the geographic focus is not limited to the Global South context. We also encourage submissions from researchers focused on emerging, and re-emerging vector-borne disease threats in the Global North, as well as diseases that are already present but may receive comparatively limited attention. Examples include Lyme disease, West Nile virus disease, and tick-borne encephalitis.

Through this collection, we aim to advance methodological innovation that within a geospatial context while strengthening the evidence base for the surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases and NTDs globally.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Spatial Epidemiology, Geospatial Risk Assessment, Vector-Borne Diseases, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), Disease Surveillance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.