Simon Hay

Research Interests

I investigate spatial and temporal aspects of malaria disease epidemiology to provide an improved evidence base for more rational implementation of disease control. Time-series analysis, population dynamic theory, remote sensing (RS), geographical information systems (GIS) and spatial analyses are all exploited for disease risk mapping and disease burden estimation. In addition, I use these techniques to explore the range of factors that are likely to impact on malaria burden, as a result of global environmental change (particularly population growth, urbanization and climate change). This will enable the ever-changing baseline malaria burden to be estimated, against which intervention strategies can be more reliably evaluated.

My work is conducted under the umbrella of the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) of which I am co-founder. MAP provides the infrastructure with which global databases of the human, disease and vector components required to map populations at risk of malaria are being assembled. Component projects are mapping the distribution and prevalence of malaria (P. falciparum and P. vivax), the Anopheles vector importance in its transmission and the human population. The prevalence of genetic polymorphisms that attenuate host susceptibility to malaria are also being mapped; predominantly the inherited haemoglobin disorders.

Other Interests

I am a series editor for Advances in Parasitology.

Contacts

Selected Publications

• Hay, S.I., Okiro, E.A., Gething, P.W., Patil, A.P., Tatem, A.J., Guerra, C.A. and Snow, R.W. (2010). Estimating the global clinical burden of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in 2007. PLoS Medicine, 7(6): e1000290.
• Gething, P.W., Smith, D.L., Patil, A.P., Tatem, A.J., Snow, R.W. and Hay, S.I. (2010). Climate change and the global malaria recession. Nature, 465(7296): 342-345.
• Hay S.I., Guerra C.A., Gething P.W., Patil A.P., Tatem A.J., Noor A.M., Kabaria C.W., Manh B.H., Elyazar I.R.F., Brooker S.J., Smith D.L., Moyeed R.A. and Snow R.W. (2009). A world malaria map: Plasmodium falciparum endemicity in 2007. PLoS Medicine, 6(3): e48.
• Hay, S.I., Guerra, C.A., Tatem, A.J., Atkinson, P.M. and Snow, R.W. (2005). Urbanization, malaria transmission and disease burden in Africa. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 3(1): 81-90.
• Snow, R.W., Guerra, C.A., Noor, A.M., Myint, H.Y. and Hay, S.I. (2005). The global distribution of clinical episodes of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Nature, 434(7030): 214-217.
• Smith, D.L., Dushoff, J., Snow, R.W. and Hay, S.I. (2005). The entomological inoculation rate and Plasmodium falciparum infection in African children. Nature, 438(7067): 492-495
• Rogers, D.J., Randolph, S.E., Snow, R.W. and Hay, S.I. (2002). Satellite imagery in the study and forecast of malaria. Nature, 415(6872): 710-715.
• Hay, S.I., Cox, J., Rogers, D.J., Randolph, S.E., Stern, D.I., Shanks, G.D., Myers, M.F. and Snow, R.W. (2002). Climate change and the resurgence of malaria in the East African highlands. Nature, 415(6874): 905-909.