Occurrence of cases of malaria in San Ramón de la Nueva Orán: Effect of environmental variables

CUÉLLAR, AC; VEGGIANI AYBAR, CA; OLEA, MS; GALANTE, G; TORRES CARRO, V; ZAIDENBERG, M; SANTANA, M; MJ, DANTUR JURI

Jornada; XXVIII Jornadas Científicas. Asociación de Biología de Tucumán; 2011

Asociación de Biología de Tucumán

Malaria is a disease caused by protozoa of the Plasmodium that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus. Environmental variables play an important role in influencing the life cycle of the vector and parasite. In northwestern Argentina, malaria is an endemic disease and constitutes a public health problem. The aim of this work was to analyze the effect of climatic variables such as maximum and minimum temperature, accumulated rainfall and relative humidity on the occurrence of malaria cases in San Ramón de la Nueva Orán, from January 1996 to December 1998. The recorded data were analyzed using Poisson regressions. There was a significant increase in the rate of incidence of the disease when the relative humidity was greater than or equal to 67.8%, when acumulative rainfall was equal to or greater than 52.33 mm and when the minimum temperature was equal to or greater than 14.4 °C. The influence of environmental conditions on the vector-disease cycle will establish preventive and control measures against possible disease outbreaks.