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. 2023 Dec;12(2):2256424.
doi: 10.1080/22221751.2023.2256424.

A virus becomes a global concern: research activities on West-Nile virus

Doris Klingelhöfer  1 , Markus Braun  1 , Isabelle M Kramer  1   2 , Friederike Reuss  1 , Ruth Müller  1   2 , David A Groneberg  1 , Dörthe Brüggmann  1
Affiliations

A virus becomes a global concern: research activities on West-Nile virus

Doris Klingelhöfer et al. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Currently, West-Nile virus (WNV) is spreading worldwide to colder regions due to climate change. Human mortality and morbidity are prevalent and steadily increasing, associated with costs to public health systems. Therefore, the question of the impact of scientific engagement arises. What trends, barriers, and incentives for research related to global burdens are important in this context? To answer these questions, this study provides detailed insights into the publication patterns of WNV research and interprets them using several parameters, such as absolute and relative publication indices and socioeconomic and epidemiological characteristics. It is shown that national interests combined with regional outbreaks significantly influence publication intensity. Thus, a correlation between national publication volume and the number of WNV cases was observed. In contrast to most life science topics, the scientific interest in WNV significantly decreased after 2006. The USA, as the main actor in WNV research, is at the centre of international networking. Recently, European countries are also getting involved according to their new-emerging outbreaks. The results demonstrate national interest in research activities with a lack of globally focused approaches that are urgently needed to better understand and assess the distribution and characteristics of WNV.

Keywords: Culex; emerging pathogens; infectious diseases; mosquitos; vector-borne diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Annual article numbers and annual citation numbers over time (1942–2022).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Density equalizing map projections. (A) Number of articles. (B) Number of citations. (C) Citation rate (number of citations/number of articles). Analysis threshold ≥ 20 articles on WNV.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Density equalizing map projection (DEMP) of socio-economic parameters. Analytical threshold ≥ 20 articles on West-Nile Virus. (A) RPOP: Number of articles/population in 10 mill. inhabitants, RGDP: Number of articles/GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in $10 billion.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Linear regression between the number of registered human West-Nile Virus (WNV) cases [37–47] and the number of articles on WNV per country. Inlet: additional magnifying glass display for countries excluding the USA. (A) Spearman regression (r2 = 0.97). (B) Residuals of countries with more than 10 articles on WNV (threshold): Negative residuals (yellow) are below the regression line, i.e. there are relatively more articles about WNV in relation to registered human WNV cases. Positive residual values (blue) are above the regression line, i.e. there are relatively fewer articles about WNV in relation to the registered human WNV cases.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Clusters of keywords. Red cluster: identification, green cluster: transmission, blue cluster: epidemiological topics, yellow cluster: health topics.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Most assigned Web of Science research areas. (A) Geographical distribution: Relative share in the ten most publishing countries. (B) Evolution over time – Relative share in 5-year intervals from 1999 to 2023.
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Grants and funding

The research was partially funded through the BIOZ project by the Federal Ministry of Health of Germany under the research network programme “Nationales Forschungsnetz Zoonotische Infektionskrankheiten” [2521NIK401].

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