This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: Data is available in a repository hosted by Stanford University, and can be accessed by the following link. Received: JanuAccepted: JPublished: July 14, 2022Ĭopyright: © 2022 Gerken et al. PLOS Glob Public Health 2(7):Įditor: Nusrat Homaira, University of New South Wales, AUSTRALIA (2022) Urban risk factors for human Rift Valley fever virus exposure in Kenya. This study provides baseline evidence to guide future studies investigating the urban potential of RVFV and highlights the unexplored role of animal products in continued spread of RVFV.Ĭitation: Gerken KN, Mutuku FM, Ndenga BA, Agola GA, Migliore E, Fabre EP, et al. We also investigated perception towards human vaccination for RVFV and identified high acceptance (91% (97/105) at our study sites. 01) and this may contribute to interepidemic vector-borne maintenance of RVFV. In addition, lack of piped water and use of small jugs (15–20 liters) for water was associated with a higher risk of RVFV exposure (OR = 5.36 (CI 95%: 1.23–16.44, p = 0.
02) and in Kisumu, RVFV exposure was associated with consumption of raw milk (OR = 6.28 (CI 95%: 0.94–25.21, p = 0. Although livestock ownership was very low in urban study sites, RVFV exposure was overall significantly associated with seeing goats around the homestead (OR = 2.34 (CI 95%: 1.18–4.69, p = 0. 88% (50/57) of RVFV exposed participants also had antibodies to DENV, CHIKV, or both. We tested participants in our ongoing urban cohort study on dengue (DENV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) virus for RVFV exposure and found 1.6% (57/3,560) of individuals in two urban areas of Kenya had anti-RVFV IgG antibodies. Thus far, RVFV is an unevaluated public health risk in urban areas within endemic regions.
Urban areas have an increased demand for animal source foods, different vector distributions, and various arboviruses are understood to establish localized urban transmission cycles. Previous studies have shown consumption of sick animal products are risk factors for RVFV infection, but it is difficult to disentangle those risk factors from other livestock rearing activities. The Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a zoonotic arbovirus that can also transmit directly to humans from livestock.