Epidemiological and environmental aspects of visceral leishmaniasis in children under 15 years of age between 2007 and 2012 in the City of Araguaína, State of Tocantins, Brazil

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Iara Brito Bucar Oliveira, Hebert Lima Batista, Joênes Mucci Peluzio, Irmtraut Araci Hoffmann Pfrimer, Flávia Melo Rodrigues, José Rodrigues do Carmo Filho
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2014
• Subjects: Visceral leishmaniasis; Epidemiology; Environmental factors; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0099-2014; https://doaj.org/article/c20c8301b3bf48ffb0eecac1caa65e5f

Introduction Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) stands out as a zoonosis observed on four continents and also in urban expansion zones in several regions of Brazil. Methods A cross-sectional epidemiological study of VL cases in children under 15 years of age in the period from 2007 to 2012. Clinical data were gathered from medical reports; meteorological data were obtained at the Meteorological Measurement Department of UFT. Environmental variables were divided into two periods, rainy and dry. Results The study revealed no difference by gender (p=0.67) among the 821 patients. However, the most affected age group was between one and five years of age (58.6%; p<0.01); the highest prevalence of the disease (99.03%; p<0.01) occurred in urban zones; and the most affected ethnic group (85.5%; p<0.01) was mixed race. The highest incidence coefficients in this population occurred in 2007 and 2008 (578.39/100,000 inhabitants; 18.5/100,000 inhabitants, respectively), whereas the highest lethality coefficients occurred in 2008 and 2011 (0.85/100 deaths). There was no significant correlation between average rainfall and the number of VL cases. The correlation between temperature and number of VL cases was negative (r = -0.4039; p<0.01). Conclusions In Araguaína, visceral leishmaniasis in children under 15 years is an urban-based endemic disease distributed across all districts of the city wherein temperature as an environmental factor, a higher prevalence in mixed race children between one and five years of age, and a high incidence coefficient all strongly contribute to child mortality.