Incubation Periods of Mosquito-Borne Viral Infections: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Mosquito-borne viruses are a major public health threat, but their incubation periods are typically uncited, non-specific, and not based on data. We systematically review the published literature on six mosquito-borne viruses selected for their public health importance: chikungunya, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, West Nile, and yellow fever viruses. For each, we identify the literature's consensus on the incubation period, evaluate the evidence for this consensus, and provide detailed estimates of the incubation period and distribution based on published experimental and observational data. We abstract original data as doubly interval-censored observations. Assuming a log-normal distribution, we estimate the median incubation period, dispersion, 25th and 75th percentiles by maximum likelihood. We include bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for each estimate. For West Nile and yellow fever viruses, we also estimate the 5th and 95th percentiles of their incubation periods.