Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Foco emergente de Leishmaniose Tegumentar (LT) no entorno do Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses, Nordeste, Brasil

2009; Faculty of Medicine of Bahia; Issue: 79 Linguagem: Inglês

0016-545X

Antonildes Nascimento Assunção Júnior, Orleans Silva, Jorge Luíz Pinto Moraes, Flávia Raquel Fernandes do Nascimento, Yrla Nívea Oliveira Pereira, Jackson Maurício Lopes Costa, José Manuel Macário Rebêlo,

Research on Leishmaniasis Studies

The epidemiological aspects of tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) and the ecology of sandfly vectors were studied in the municipality of Barreirinhas, “Parque Nacional dos Lencois Maranhenses”. The detection rate and demographic and temporal data regarding TL were collected between 2000 and 2004 in 87 villages and in the municipality itself. Sandflies were collected with HP light traps in intra- and peridomiciliary areas of 13 localities presenting active foci of transmission. A total of 451 cases of TL were recorded and the overall detection rate was 246.0. The highest absolute number of cases (124 cases) and the highest detection rate of autochthonous cases (338.2) were observed in 2002. The disease predominated among males (59.9%), in the age groups of 10-19 (24.4%) and 20-29 (19.3%) years, among laborers (45.2%), and during the dry season (74.3%). A total of 3010 sandfly specimens (males: 65.2% and females: 34.8%) were captured in the peridomiciliary (61%) and intradomiciliary area (49%). The predominant species were Lutzomyia whitmani (44.31%) and L. longipalpis (28.64%). TL is widely distributed in the municipality of Barreirinhas and essentially behaves as an occupational disease because it manifests more frequently in farmers and in more productive age groups, suggesting a predominantly extradomiciliary transmission. However, the existence of cases among preschool children also suggests its transmission in domiciliary areas. This hypothesis is supported by the frequent presence of the vector, L. whitmani, in the peridomiciliary area. The dry season was found to be the most important factor for transmission and development of the disease due to the greater contact of individuals with the sandfly vectors, which are more abundant during this season.