Fatores Ambientais Relacionados à Dispersão da Leishmaniose Visceral Canina em Presidente Prudente, SP

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is considered an endemic zoonosis infecting people in more than 90 countries. Brazil alone harbors about 90% of VL cases in Latin America. In São Paulo state, canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) was first described in Araçatuba in 1998. In 2003, the disease was found in Dracena, which is located in the west region of São Paulo state, and, in 2010, in Presidente Prudente, which is considered a connecting axis between Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná states, an epidemiological route of the disease. Our objective was to study the environmental risk factors related to the spreading of CVL in the urbanized area of Presidente Prudente, São Paulo state, Brazil. This is an epidemiologic, descriptive and sectional study, in which dogs showing positive serology to CVL in the period of 2010-2015 were distributed according to their owners address. In addition, watershed, forest fragments and irregular waste deposits were determined in the urbanized area of Presidente Prudente. There was a progressive increase of serologic positive dogs for CVL in the studied period. According to the Kernel map, the regions with increased number of infected dogs were around the open air drainage basins, forest fragments and irregular waste deposits, confirming that these are risk factors for the spreading of the disease. The determination of these risk factors and their possible association may contribute to the planning of effective public health policies, particularly in the environment system, human and canine population, intervening and controlling the biologic cycle of the disease.