Boundless Science Season 2: Bugs Out: Vector-Borne Disease Mitigation

Welcome to our newest episode Bugs Out: Vector-Borne Disease mitigation in the boundless science series! I am your host, Dorcas Sunday, and in today’s episode, we get the chance to talk with Ms. Kassidy Caride MPH, Program Coordinator Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne diseases.

Listen to find out more about the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Disease (SCEVBD), current projects and research explored by the by the center in preventing and controlling vector borne disease. Also find out about training opportunities and internships are available for professional development.

 https://sercoevbd-flgateway.org/

This podcast discusses Cooperative Agreement Number U01CK0006** from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Keywords: Vector borne disease, Malaria, Malaria Vaccine, Mosquito borne diseases, Ticks, SECVBD

#BoundlessScienceseason2

Transcript

Dorcas:

 ……Hello, and welcome back to the podcast series, Boundless Science, brought to you by Streaming Science, a student driven program that works to connect you with scientists, to learn how science impacts all of us and our everyday lives and interests. I am Dorcas Sunday, a first year PhD student at the University of Florida in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications.

I'm your host for this episode. Joining us today is Miss Kassidy Caride a public health professional, and we're excited to talk about the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Disease and its role in mitigation for public health. Through this episode, I hope you learn about the center and the work they are doing to combat vector borne diseases and  also learn about preventive measures that you can take concerning vector borne diseases and vectors. 

Hi, Miss Kassidy, I'm so glad to have you here.

Kassidy:

Hi, good afternoon. How are you doing today?  

Dorcas:

I'm fine.  Could you please tell us about yourself and introduce yourself to the audience? 

Kassidy:

Of course. As you mentioned, thank you for the introduction. My name is Kassidy Caride I am currently the program coordinator for the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases.

My background is primarily public health.  I attended Florida State University, so a big rival to UF. You can't hold it against me, but I got my Master of Public Health from that program, with a concentration in policy. So that gives me kind of a diverse background to bring to this position in the Southeastern Center. 

Dorcas:

Interesting. I love that you are focusing on policy, which is interesting to see that things are really moving well, because a lot of things that affect public health. are related to policies. So, nice one.  

Kassidy:

Yeah, yeah.  And that's the thing about it too is   I'm sure we'll get into this, but I came into this job, and I was like how do mosquitoes and ticks relate to policy or public health? And so, it's opened my eyes a lot.   

Dorcas:

Okay. That's good. So, what is your role at the Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Disease?   So, within the center, I am the program coordinator, as my boss, the director, Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan, likes to say, I wrangle a lot of cats, or that's what it feels like I'm doing. So, I help just facilitate aspects of the center.  So, keeping research projects on track, reporting about those research projects. A lot of coordinating of meetings and that's the wrangling cats. I'm dealing with like 16 to 20 different faculty members who all have varying schedules. So always trying to get them together at 1 time is not the easiest. But I do that. And then I also lead a lot of the training components of the center and so that's kind of everything that falls in my umbrella of work. 

Dorcas:

Wow. It sounds like an interesting job.  And, you get to meet a lot of scientists and researchers. You get to have interesting topics. 

Kassidy:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Dorcas:

Yes. Interesting.  Many of us have childhood experiences that may have influenced our career choices or how we got to what we are. So, do you think of any experiences that led you to your current role? 

Kassidy:

Yeah, I think my mom was one of the biggest influences and that works for a lot of people, I'm sure but she was a nurse while I was growing up and then as I got older, she kind of transitioned from hospital nursing and floor nursing to a more public health aspect of it.  And as she was going through that process, she worked as an infection preventionist at a hospital, and I just fell in love with it. It sounds so weird, but I like diseases and how to prevent them and that led me to my interest in public health and then subsequently my interest in vector borne diseases. 

Dorcas: 

Oh, interesting. We have something in common then. My mom is a nurse, and while trying to choose a career, I thought I would be a doctor because I just, diseases like, they fascinate me.

I just wanted to know what was going on and, my grandfather was also into agriculture, so I was like between choices.  And, when I got admission into agriculture, I remember my mom saying, Hey, It's good.  Remember medicine came from agriculture. So, you're one way or the other doing the same thing.

She actually encouraged me and

Kassidy: that's awesome!

Dorcas:  

It sounds amazing to know that you have the same experiences.

Kassidy:

Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I mean, something I'm sure you've learned as well, it’s really, that One Health approach, a lot of things go hand in hand. So, you can have an interest in diseases and then also work within agriculture, as we'll talk about, I'm sure, to kind of just help combine those two pathways, so, all your interest kind of in one. 

Kassidy:

Yeah. Yes. And I guess that's what we're doing today on streaming science. Yeah.  Perfect. Yes. Good. So, for those who are unfamiliar with the Center of Excellence for Vector Borne Disease, can you share a bit about the organization?

Kassidy:

Yeah, of course.  So, the Southeastern Center of Vector Borne Diseases is a CDC funded cooperative agreement. So, we really partner and work with the CDC to implement our research projects, our goals, our aims and so, this center was first funded, in the first iteration between 2017 and 2022. It was initiated in the wake of the Zika epidemic of 2016. And so, the center itself, their goals and their aims were tailored towards mosquito biology, surveillance, and control for that emerging vector borne disease. 

And as many people, whether you grew up in Florida or you didn't grow up in Florida, you know that we have a mosquito issue. You walk outside, you're playing outside. I remember as a kid just growing up and getting so many mosquito bites.  So. People are aware it's an issue here, and it kind of goes hand in hand with not only Florida, but the Southeast. So, it shows that importance to have, the center within this area.  And then, yeah, during that first iteration, researchers within the center, they recognized that there was also a lack of understanding and practices towards tick borne diseases. So, during that iteration, seeing that, led to our second iteration, which we are in now and we are funded, our year one was in 2022, and now we're funded through 2027. And so, our aims and goals are kind of, they lean more on the, tick side as of now, but we also have, uh, mosquito vector borne disease, goals and aims as well. 

Dorcas:

Oh, it’s interesting   that you are not focusing on a particular vector, it is quite interesting! and seeing that tick borne disease is an emerging vector borne disease in the southeastern United States. It's really interesting to know that the center is being updated about different diseases and is working to see that all these emerging vector borne diseases are being prevented and controlled. That's a good one.  

Yeah. So, I know we've been saying vector, vector borne disease.   Before we get far into this discussion, I would want you to define vectors and vector borne disease. So, our listeners would be able to Understand information we're giving to them today.

Kassidy:

 Yeah, of course.  So, a vector is typically an insect that transmit diseases, among populations. And then vector borne disease is that disease, different types that the vector, can transmit. And so that's what we really focus on within our center. There's a multitude. So, examples are Zika, Dengue, Yellow Fever, not prevalent as of now, but. An example, and then tick-borne diseases. Now I apologize. So, my background is mostly in mosquitoes.

So, I'm not the best on ticks and tick borne diseases, but Ehrlichiosis, Rickettsia, things like that. So, looking at those tick-borne diseases and learning how we can implement preventive practices and control measures to limit risk of populations.  

Dorcas:

Yes, I know in Nigeria, where I'm from, malaria is really one of those vector borne diseases that the health department is really looking at controlling because it's been going on for years.

And all the efforts being put out there, it is still persistent, and I just hope today, we would be able to tell the listeners, this is what you can also do to control this. Okay. Doing your own little good. As the organizations that are in charge are putting more efforts. People out there are also putting in effort to see how we could eliminate these diseases. 

Kassidy:

Yeah, very important. Yes. Great. I'm happy to talk further on that for sure. 

Dorcas:

Okay.  Would you like to share on current projects and research that the center is working on? Sure.  Yeah.  So, as I mentioned, we're kind of split between, mosquito projects and tick projects. So, with our mosquito projects, one of them is to capture temporal dynamics of Aedes aegypti mosquito populations, movement, and dispersal, and that would help us understand mosquitos’ exposures.

That way, we can improve mosquito management approaches.  So again, it's that, um, Way that we can be preventative of mosquitoes and mosquito exposures.  So, generating this data of mosquito movement can allow us to predict and guide our vector control interventions during an outbreak or at the beginning of an outbreak. So, it's not that reactive measures that we take that we're still trying to stay that proactive before, you know, It becomes a large issue, if that makes sense.

Dorcas:

 It makes sense. So, you mentioned proactive strategies. So, are there specific proactive strategies that the center is taking?

Kassidy:

Yeah. So, all of these projects, that we're working on, like I mentioned, the temporal dynamics of the mosquito population movement. That would be a practice that we could implement after research is done.  That way it can allow those predictions to guide, uh, vector control interventions and what this is. To kind of like give you a picture of in your head. It's a mosquito trap and as mosquitoes fly in, they are identified and they are marked with like a fluorescent powder and then released again, then a separate device can trap that mosquito and identify if it was marked prior. That way we can kind of track the movement of those mosquitoes to see where they are going and that can help us in the future to guide those vector control interventions on where we need to implement those interventions. 

Dorcas:

Wow, it's, really an interesting way to do this because it makes you know where these vectors are and, keeping track of them is like keeping track of where they actually pick these diseases from, and you'll be able to know how to control it.  It's interesting. 

Kassidy:

Yeah, it is really cool.

Um, and then one other one that I would like to highlight is, one of our tick intervention projects. So we're doing this project, throughout multiple partners in our center. So, I don't, I don't think I mentioned the full range. I said the southeast, but I think it's really cool. Our center is in Florida, we have partners in Puerto Rico, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia. So it's really like that entire, southeast like coast area as well as the U. S. Virgin Islands. Yeah, so it's very large. And so this project is being done with many of our partners, specifically Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina.  And so, with this project, I, just cause my public health background, I think it just really piqued my interest that we want to start this summer.

We use something called the TickBot.  In my head, it just looks like one of those remote-control cars, like with the four wheels that are really big and it has a remote, but it's, the mechanics of it are much more complex, but that's exactly what it looks like, and it's what it drives like, and everyone always, like, has a blast just driving it around. It looks like a big toy. But it's much more important. So, with that, we're able to sweep vegetation and areas with a Paristhmion treated cloth, and it kills those ticks that are on the ground in those areas on contact and that prevents them from biting people or attaching to animals for a whole 24-hour period.  So yes, which is awesome. And. It's important that we see where this, because it is, it's still just like a small little toy car, almost.  So how can we use that to have the biggest impact possible? And so the idea is to test the efficacy of this, this summer to look at extremely highly populated public places.

So, to really target those populations or at-risk populations, one of the biggest ways that I can show an example of this is 4th of July, you know, 4th of July night parks, um, areas, they shoot off fireworks. You have large populations of people in one area outside laying down their blankets, kids rolling in the grass.

So, the thought is, if we can take this tick bot and run it the night before 4th of July and kill all those ticks in that area, it would reduce that chance of exposure for that large amount of population that would be gathering there the next day. So that proactive mindset to do that prior, rather than having individuals exposed. the day of. 

Dorcas:

Yes. Yes.  Doing this in a proactive way, because a lot of people out there who don't really know, like when you get bitten by a tick, you don't really put it into consideration. You just wave it off and just move on. And maybe someone with that experience may not think to go to a doctor's place.  

Kassidy: Exactly. 

Dorcas: for treatment until the symptoms are getting worse if the person is probably infected. So having a proactive strategy to prevent these vectors is really important, and such a cool way to do it.  

Kassidy:

Yeah, I just thought that was a brilliant idea. Some of the things That just come up, still blow my mind.

I was like, that's a great, and that's a prime example of a public health intervention, and having that proactive mindset, as you mentioned.

Dorcas:

Yes, and speaking about the Aedes mosquitoes, you mentioned, what specific diseases can people get from the Aedes mosquito? 

Kassidy:

So, specifically, Aedes aegypti, it transmits dengue, chikungunya, zika, yellow fever, those are the main ones in Florida. We're really looking at dengue.  Right now, especially there's I think they've classified it as an outbreak right now in South Florida. It's getting to very high numbers.  So that is One of the highest specifically for Florida. 

Dorcas:

I know a lot of people may be like, Oh, what's dengue? What's chikungunya?

Kassidy: 

Yeah, exactly! 

Dorcas:

So, I wanted to know, why should people actually care? Are these diseases life threatening?  

Kassidy:

Now, I'm not very versed on the clinical side. So, well, without proper treatment and intervention, of course. Of course, they can be, life threatening if you don't have access to care and you let it go on. And that's also an issue. Sometimes symptoms can mimic, like, a bad fever or a bad flu and you're like, oh, I just have a fever, I have a flu and without proper testing, it'll go unnoticed and then continue to be transmitted by mosquitoes. And so, to a point, they could be life threatening, but typically it's fever symptoms, flu symptoms, that individuals experience.

Dorcas:

Yes, and I like the fact that they should care because they could actually transmit these to other people. Yes. So, actually, it could further delay the impact that the preventive measures that are being taken is exactly doing. So, people have to care about all of these vectors and how to protect themselves from it to prevent it from spreading and even becoming a more serious issue.

Kassidy:

Yep, exactly! And that's what we can see in South Florida and with dengue. And that's also thinking about that proactive approach.  Before it spirals out of control, how can we target it and address it? Because not everyone is going to go to the doctor and get diagnosed with this. And so, it would continue circulating within that community and just growing and continuing to infect other individuals.

Dorcas:

Yeah. Wow. So, are these strategies peculiar to the southeastern United States or like back home in Nigeria, can people use the same strategies to prevent vector borne disease?  

Kassidy:

Yeah. So, the research projects might be a little bit trickier because it's not standard practice, but that's also something that we face within Florida and all across the United States is practices of one mosquito control district.  They might have, you know, helicopters and drones and all of these different devices and resources that they're able to use at their disposal. And then you go one county over and it’s not like that. They don't have as many resources at their disposal, and so that's the important part of developing these proactive techniques and resources is to make it available to everyone to use.

 So, it's not expensive, but it's still efficient and effective. And just that's a big issue. And that's something that should be considered when developing these protocols and these management techniques is how can we apply this to a highly funded mosquito control district and then a community themselves that are trying to be more protective of mosquitoes. 

Dorcas:

Okay, that’s really good. So, speaking of science literacy.  Yeah. What public health initiatives are being explored or developed by the Center in Preventing Vector Borne Disease? 

Kassidy: 

Yeah.  So, I think I just want to re highlight the tick bot. I think that one is so cool.  Doing that as a public health intervention for individuals during those high, uh, Exposure events, having that proactive mindset and then another aspect of that is what we do with the pie center at University of Florida, the public issues education center. So, with them, we're surveying specific populations to understand their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards vector borne diseases.  So, what does this mean?  It means Dr. Baker at the pie center, her and her team. Have done a fantastic job getting these surveys out. They're going to agricultural events, having boots on the ground, like her students, giving these surveys, talking to people and understanding where they stand in their knowledge.

Specifically, they did tick borne diseases.  So. What do individuals know about these emerging tick-borne diseases? Do they know that they're at risk? Do they only know that their cattle is at risk? Where do they stand on that? And then also, their attitudes and then their behaviors. Are they taking proactive measures to reduce their exposure to tick borne diseases?

Do they know what these behaviors are? And that’s one public health intervention that we're doing. And with those survey responses and the information that we gather, we hope to make specified educational campaigns to these populations to identify where that gap of knowledge is and how best to reach those audience and make it effective information so that they change their behaviors, and they protect themselves. 

Dorcas:

Wow. It sounds like a really interesting idea and project.  

Kassidy:

Yeah, they're doing a fantastic job with it, too. They're, they're doing a great job. Yes. 

Dorcas: So, what mediums would you use for the public health campaign? 

Kassidy:

So, that’s on them and we also haven't gotten that far yet, but to my knowledge, on their survey, The responses and idea that they analyzed were what educational campaign would you listen to? Would you get your information from, and from specifically agricultural populations, they said extension agents. So, in the future, that could look like something hosting an event with extension agents in that community that has a tailored PowerPoint, or video or Something, a podcast, something like that, that can reach those audiences and that's targeted for those audiences. So, they'll listen and adapt those behaviors. 

Dorcas:

I see. So, you're using the feedback from the audience to know where they would want to listen to this information.  Yes. So, yes, that is a really smart way to do it because using what they want would allow them actually to listen to this information and make use of whatever steps they are being given to. 

Yeah.  Amazing. 

Kassidy:

Yeah. And I think that it just ties so tightly with public health because one of the foundational concepts of public health is you can't go to a community and tell them what to do and expect them to listen to you and hold you in high regard and trust what you're saying and so, by working with who they trust and who they get their information from will just make educational campaign so much more effective, and have that behavior change that we want to keep populations healthy. 

Dorcas:

Wow. Wow. I'm sure enjoying this conversation.  And I'm like, it’s fun to know that,  the center is putting this much effort to see that,  vector borne diseases are being taken care of. And I hope with everything the center is doing that people actually take this seriously and help the center to combat this vector borne diseases and vectors. 

Kassidy:

Yeah, me as well. We're going to try our hardest, so.  

Dorcas:

So, now that we know what the center is doing, getting back to the audience, do you have any practical steps that the audience can take to prevent and control this vector borne disease from their end? 

Kassidy:

Yes, so there's a few basic steps you can take, when you're going to spend time outdoors. You know, you want to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and I know, at least being from Florida, thinking about stepping out in 90-degree weather and long pants and a long sleep shirt. It's not fun.  But that limits spaces on you where you can get bit by mosquitoes if you wear light colored clothes, you can see ticks on your clothes better because they show up a little bit better.  And so just wearing like light long sleeve, light pants that are like not too heavy on you, would reduce that. Risk, also wearing a repellent and using that on any exposed skin.

And then also for mosquitoes, a big one that I learned during some of my field work a few years ago.  If you're living in a house or an apartment and you have containers that are sitting in the yard, and every time it rains, it fills up with water and you don't dump them, that becomes breeding sites for mosquitoes. So that's where a lot of them breed.  And then you can have swarms of mosquitoes just all around your house. And so, it's really important to dump those containers and to flip them over.  So, they don't start holding any water.  

Dorcas:

Okay, Okay. So, that's a really good one. I hope the listeners have heard it and, you all take this serious and try to take the steps to prevent and control vector borne diseases and these vectors. 

Dorcas:

Okay. Are there resources, training, professional development opportunities offered by the Center for those that are interested in this field?  

Kassidy:

So, we have a large training component to our center, one of the biggest being our summer internships. So every summer we host, it's about 20 to 25 interns at different locations and I was actually a product of that. Program. So, before I was in this position, I was an intern for the center, and I got to work with Anastasia mosquito control in Florida, and I was an intern there. I got to learn all the basics about mosquitoes, biology, surveillance, and research. Had some really awesome experiences that I never thought I would have.

And so yeah, those are fantastic opportunities, and we offer those every summer. And if you're interested, you're welcome to contact me. And if of one of our locations looking for an intern, I'm happy to connect you with them. We have that program. We also support fellows every year to Dodd, which, Florida Mosquito Control Association hosts a workshop every year in January in Gainesville, and it's called the Dodd Short Courses, and they offer, I think it was 40 courses this year, but I could be wrong. They offer quite a few courses, on Just a range of topics, mosquitoes, mosquito borne diseases, best practices, and outreach education for mosquito control.  They added a tick-borne disease course this year. And so, every year we support 10, fellows, we call them, and we support their registration and their travel costs. And so that application opens in about November, end of November, mid-November and so we have individuals apply and, they can receive that fellowship. 

Dorcas:

Okay, so this fellowship sound amazing, the internships and the training. So how do people access this? Is there a social media platform, website? 

Kassidy:

Yeah, so for the internships, we don't have any applications because we do Leave it up to our different partners, and they're the ones that will be working with the students. But, if you're interested, you can email me. And if there's a way to add my email.  To the bio of this or anything. I'm happy to do that.

 And additionally, you can find all of our contacts on our web, our website.  I believe it's just  https://sercoevbd-flgateway.org/And it should pop up. And that's where we post any training opportunities. We have my email; the center email is the there. So, we're always open to receiving questions or inquiries about, training and training activities. And then I also just want to mention one other thing that we have on our website is, our online courses for mosquito and ticks.  These are kind of a foundational course on, we have two separate ones, one for mosquito, one for ticks on public health practices within these vectors, and they're free to take anyone can take them. And for Florida, they do count towards continuing education credits, or units for technicians a mosquito control technician. So those are free and access accessible on our website. 

Dorcas:

Okay, so everyone, you've heard it. You're interested in training, having resources or professional development opportunities with the center. Please reach out to Miss Kassidy on LinkedIn, I would have all information on the dropdown text on this platform, so feel free to click on these websites, send an email so that you could improve yourself and make do with these opportunities.  Thank you so much, Miss Kassidy. This has been a really engaging session.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Kassidy:

I don't think so. Just those key takeaways to remember. if you're going out into nature or outside, just protect yourself and look at what you as an individual, where you are, what you could be at risk for.  Yeah, that's all I have to say.  

Dorcas:

Wow, what an awesome experience this has been.

I really enjoyed having you. so much, Miss Kassidy, for joining us today on streaming science. We have had an incredible conversation with you. Thank you!

To our listeners. Thank you for tuning in, your support means the world to us. We hope you found today's episode informative and engaging. …….

Thank you for joining us on today's episode of Boundless Science. We hope you listen with us on the next episode. To find the rest of our series, go to streamingscience.com. We have some interesting topics and guests on the next episodes. Until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep streaming science.

Thank you!