{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T19:06:05Z","timestamp":1789499165685,"version":"build-2803163510"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014631","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789430400000}}],"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788825600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["INV025569"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INV025569"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["INV025569"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INV025569"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.ploscompbiol.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Comput Biol"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Malaria transmission exhibits significant heterogeneity within communities, with small proportions of individuals experiencing disproportionate mosquito exposure.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study addresses critical knowledge gaps in characterising and modelling this heterogeneity. Parameterising Bayesian hierarchical models to field data from Burkina Faso, we compared gamma and lognormal distributions for describing heterogeneity in mosquito biting rates. We then implemented this heterogeneity in an individual-based stochastic modelling platform, OpenMalaria, to assess its impact on transmission dynamics.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Findings<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The gamma distribution better described the observed field data than the lognormal. This choice has a natural mathematical justification: when individual biting rates follow a gamma distribution and bites occur as a Poisson process, the resulting bite counts follow a negative binomial distribution, which is well-supported empirically for overdispersed count data of this kind. Furthermore, the gamma distribution\u2019s lighter tail produces more moderate saturation and immunity effects compared to lognormal-based models, yielding more realistic transmission dynamics. When heterogeneity is introduced to malaria transmission simulations, both prevalence and incidence levels generally decrease across all age groups. Additionally, heterogeneity shifts disease burden towards younger age cohorts and alters the fundamental relationships between entomological inoculation rate and prevalence\/incidence. The integration of appropriate heterogeneity distributions into transmission models substantially improved their ability to reproduce field-observed age-incidence curves.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Interpretation<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for heterogeneous exposure when modelling malaria transmission, particularly in low-transmission and elimination settings where heterogeneity may be more pronounced.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014631","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T18:06:37Z","timestamp":1788890797000},"page":"e1014631","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Exploring heterogeneity in mosquito exposure and attraction and its 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Switzerland"],"department":["Department of Epidemiology and Public Health"]},{"name":"University of Basel","place":["Basel, Switzerland"]},{"name":"The Kids Research Institute Australia","place":["Nedlands, Australia"]},{"name":"University of Western Australia","place":["Crawley, Australia"],"department":["Centre for Child Health Research"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nakul","family":"Chitnis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute","place":["Allschwill, Switzerland"],"department":["Department of Epidemiology and Public Health"]},{"name":"University of Basel","place":["Basel, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1598-962X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Emma Louise","family":"Fairbanks","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute","place":["Allschwill, 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