P2-507 Prevalence and factors associated to geohelminth infections in children living in municipalities with low HDI in Brazil

Abstract

Introduction Leptospirosis has emerged as an important health problem in developing countries due to the growth of slum settlements worldwide, where poor sanitation favours rat-borne transmission. Large urban epidemics occur during seasonal periods of heavy rainfall. However, a detailed analysis has not been performed to determine how rainfall, as well as other climatic factors, specifically influences the risk of leptospirosis in these endemic settings. Methods We analysed data from 2083 leptospirosis cases which were identified during active population-based surveillance performed in the city of Salvador, Brazil between 1996 and 2010. Information on daily rainfall, humidity and temperature were obtained for the same period. A generalised additive model was fitted, using a negative binomial distribution for weekly aggregated data (729 weeks). We incorporated a non-parametric term to estimate the time trend and a sin-cosine term to control for seasonal confounding. Results Rainfall and humidity were positively associated with the number of cases two weeks later, linearly and without a threshold. Temperature protected, even though the range between maximum and minimum temperatures is small: from 22 to 338C. A decreasing trend was highly significant, possibly due to intervention of sewerage and garbage collection systems. Conclusion Leptospirosis is expected to become an increasingly important slum health problem as predicted global climate change and growth of the world's slum population evolves, and models adequate to estimate the impact of both environment and climate variables on incidence of all environmental related diseases should be incorporated in the epidemiologists toolbox.

Prevalence and epidemiology of intestinal parasitism, as revealed by three distinct techniques in an endemic area in the Brazilian Amazon

“…The heterogeneous distribution of enteric diseases in distinct income groups has proven that these infections are closely related to socioeconomic circunstances (Quihui et al, 2006;Sowemimo and Asaolu, 2010). Therefore, improving living conditions is probably the main factor in order to achieve sustainable control of intestinal parasitism (Fonseca et al, 2010).…”

Epidemiological Assessment of Neglected Diseases in Children: Lymphatic Filariasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis

“…Observou-se a predominância de helmintos, confirmando que as geohelmintíases ainda representam relevante problema de saúde. 20 Entre os helmintos os maiores percentuais foram de A. lumbricoides e T. trichiura, a exemplo do que tem sido demonstrado em outras investigações realizadas no Brasil. 20,21 A frequência de infecção filarial quando detectada unicamente através da pesquisa de microfilárias foi baixa (1,2%) e quando associada à investigação pelo ICT aumentou para 13,8%.…”

Fatores associados às enteroparasitoses em crianças usuárias de creches comunitárias

“…Crianças filhas de mães com menor escolaridade apresentaram maior prevalência de enteroparasitoses quando comparadas às crianças filhas de mães de maior escolaridade. Outros trabalhos na literatura também apresentaram esta relação entre escolaridade dos pais e presença de parasitas intestinais em crianças 5,13,23 , o que reforça a importância da instrução dos pais na prevenção das contaminações enteroparasitárias.…”