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Page 67
Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy |ISSN: 2332-0877 | Volume 6
June 25-26, 2018 | Vancouver, Canada
3
rd
International Conference on
2
nd
International Conference on
Infection, Disease Control and Prevention
Microbial Pathogenesis & Infectious Diseases
&
Exploring the climatic and land use factors behind the 1999 Vancouver Island outbreak of
Cryptococcus gattii
Emily Acheson
University of British Columbia, Canada
W
hy do infectious diseases emerge where they do? Climatic and land use changes are considered the two major factors,
with increasing debate around which factor is more important. In Canada, a fungus called
Cryptococcus gattii
emerged
on Vancouver Island in 1999 for unknown reasons, capable of causing a potentially fatal respiratory and neurological disease
upon inhalation of its spores. The research project proposed here aims to investigate the environmental factors behind the
emergence of
C. gattii
on Vancouver Island using geographic information systems and remote sensing. Environmental data
(e.g. seasonal temperature, precipitation, etc.) at 30-m resolution for Vancouver Island were collected from the ClimateBC
program for 1984-2012. Annual land cover and forest harvest data, as well as elevation, were also used. Georeferenced
C. gattii
occurrence records provided by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control were used to determine the corresponding
environmental data at their time of collection and in the years prior to isolation. This oral presentation will show the results of
these analyses, focusing on common environmental traits of areas where
C. gattii
was isolated from the environment. How did
these areas (i.e. grid cells) change in the 10-15 years prior to
C. gattii
’s isolation in that area?
J Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C2-042