The Risk of a Mosquito-Borne Infectionin a Heterogeneous Environment

A common assumption about malaria, dengue, and other mosquito-borne infections is that the two main components of the risk of human infection--the rate at which people are bitten (human biting rate) and the proportion of mosquitoes that are infectious--are positively correlated. In fact, these two risk factors are generated by different processes and may be negatively correlated across space and time in heterogeneous environments. Uneven …