Robert Spear

Research Interests

My current work is focused on modeling the determinants disease transmission and the implications for control of schistosomiasis in farming communities near Xichang in Sichuan Province. This work involves dynamic systems analysis, applications of geographic information systems, and remote sensing technology.

Research Summary

The parasitic disease schistosomiasis is endemic in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world including parts of China, Africa, and South America. In the absence of a vaccine, control involves a variety of strategies including habitat distruction of the intermediate host, aquatic or amphibious snails, chemotherapy in humans, sanitation measures, and educational interventions. None of these is uniformly effective and combinations of control interventions tailored to site- or situation-specific circumstances are often required. Our work has the objective of developing effective site-specific strategies utilizing locally available field data or remotely sensed data that can be collected at reasonable cost. In particular, we are using dynamic systems models, based in mathematical epidemiology, as platforms for the integration of these data and then for designing site-specific interventions. A central research question relates to the effective integration of spatial and landscape variables into this analysis. Monte Carlo simuations and Bayesian methods are central to our approach. Our field work is in collaboration with the Sichuan Institute of Parasitic Disease and focused in the southwestern part of that province.

Selected Publications