By Tiffany Ngo Leung
Tourists from all over the world arrive at Sochi, ready to cheer for the athletes in the Winter Olympics 2014. As they prepare to fly home with wonderful memories and souvenirs, some rescue and bring home a dog. While the adorable furry faces can melt our hearts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reminds us that we must remember to vaccinate the rescued dogs against rabies. Vaccination helps keep our dogs protected from disease.
The discovery of vaccines paved the way for many countries to become rabies-free. While vaccination is an important strategy in many infectious diseases eradication, so are educational programmes to raise disease awareness. A reminder from the CDC raises rabies awareness and keeps us aware of where dog rabies still exists in many parts of the world. For my vacation research, I used mathematics to model dog rabies and to answer the question: What would happen if everyone was aware of the impact of rabies through the educational programmes and acted responsibly if they suspected their dog has rabies? Mathematical modelling of these elimination strategies allows us to set realistic goals to eradicate rabies globally.
Sometimes it may be expensive or unethical to conduct experiments to collect data. In the case of rabies, it would be unethical to set rabid dogs free and observe what happens. This is part of the challenge of infectious disease modelling. There are many factors at play in disease dynamics, and with mathematics we are able to pinpoint the drivers of such dynamics.
I have always loved population health and found infectious diseases fascinating. When I found out I could pursue both of these interests (and more) simultaneously with mathematics, I knew mathematics was right for me. It is exciting to see that mathematics can be used to understand and describe so many things around us. Mathematics is especially crucial in helping to find a solution to problems when experiments may be impossible to conduct or data may be hard to obtain. This VRS project – modelling rabies in dogs – underscores the importance of research in solving the global issues, like potential dog rabies eradication.
Tiffany Ngo Leung was one of the recipients of a 2013/14 AMSI Vacation Research Scholarship.