Agent-Based modelling: An in silico study on the effectiveness of Wolbachia-Infected mosquitoes as vector control agents

Abstract

Dengue Fever (DF) is a mosquito-borne disease which is a major epidemic concern especially in the South East Asia region. Various control interventions have been implied to control the breeding of mosquito vectors including the application of Wolbachia infected mosquitoes to reduce the transmission of dengue fever in Malaysia. Using the available data on the life cycle and transmission pattern of Aedes mosquitoes, this study explores the probability of the interaction of releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes with dengue-infected mosquitoes spatially, and how would this interaction be able to reduce the case of dengue fever. A simple model is designed based on epidemiological data available and introduced in agent-based modelling. The model operates at local scale with support of computational infected mosquito with Wolbachia and with dengue virus by using GAMA Modelling and simulation platform (http://gamaplatform. org), scheduled using a time scale of 60 minutes over 6 months period. The model predicted that 96% of dengue-infected mosquito will be replaced by Wolbachiainfected mosquito over a period of 6 months. The result proposed that the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquito into dengue hotspot population may reduce the case of dengue fever. This model has been designed to be completely generic and applicable to any geographic setting at any spatial scale. More modification of parameters will be implemented and the length of the exposure in silico will be expanded for five and ten years period to increase the strength of the model.