Spatial and temporal distribution of the annual parasite incidence of malaria in Brazil: a case study of Acre between 2003 and 2017

Abstract

Malaria is a public health problem in Brazil. This study aims at analyzing the number of cases and the Annual Parasite Incidence (API) of malaria in Brazil, which was calculated using the number of cases and the population data. Special attention was placed on the State of Acre within the time interval between 2003 and 2017. 4,647,102 malaria cases were registered in the Brazilian Legal Amazon between 2003 and 2017, which represents 99.99% of the total number of national cases. The API of malaria decreased in the Brazilian Legal Amazon over that period. Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, and Acre were the States with the highest number of occurrences. Among these States, only Acre showed an increasing trend in the number of cases in 2017 when compared to the infection cases reported in 2003. Three municipalities of this State, Cruzeiro do Sul, Mâncio Lima and Rodrigues Alves, represented most of the total number of cases from the State and had an increase in the number of cases in the period. Transmission does not occur homogeneously in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. This study is important for the analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution of the malaria occurrences at Acre.