INVESTIGADORES
GURTLER Ricardo Esteban
artículos
Título:
Factors affecting infestation by Triatoma infestans in a rural area of the humid Chaco in Argentina: a multi-model inference approach.
Autor/es:
GUREVITZ JM; CEBALLOS LA; GASPE MS; ALVARADO JA; ENRIQUEZ, GF; KITRON U; GURTLER RE
Revista:
PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES
Editorial:
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Referencias:
Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2011 vol. 5 p. 1365 - 1365
ISSN:
1935-2735
Resumen:
Background: Transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi by Triatoma infestans remains a major public health problem in the Gran
Chaco ecoregion, where understanding of the determinants of house infestation is limited. We conducted a cross-sectional
study to model factors affecting bug presence and abundance at sites within house compounds in a well-defined rural area
in the humid Argentine Chaco.
Methodology/Principal Findings: Triatoma infestans bugs were found in 45.9% of 327 inhabited house compounds but only
in 7.4% of the 2,584 sites inspected systematically on these compounds, even though the last insecticide spraying campaign
was conducted 12 years before. Infested sites were significantly aggregated at distances of 0.8?2.5 km. The most frequently
infested ecotopes were domiciles, kitchens, storerooms, chicken coops and nests; corrals were rarely infested. Domiciles with
mud walls and roofs of thatch or corrugated tarred cardboard weremore often infested (32.2%) than domiciles with brick-andcement
walls and corrugated metal-sheet roofs (15.1%). A multi-model inference approach using Akaike?s information criterion
was applied to assess the relative importance of each variable by running all possible (17,406) models resulting from all
combinations of variables. Availability of refuges for bugs, construction with tarred cardboard, and host abundance (humans,
dogs, cats, and poultry) per site were positively associated with infestation and abundance, whereas reported insecticide use
showed a negative association. Ethnic background (Creole or Toba) adjusted for other factors showed little or no association.
Conclusions/Significance: Promotion and effective implementation of housing improvement (including key peridomestic
structures) combined with appropriate insecticide use and host management practices are needed to eliminate infestations.
Fewer refuges are likely to result in fewer residual foci after insecticide spraying, and will facilitate community-based vector
surveillance. A more integrated perspective that considers simultaneously social, economic and biological processes at local
and regional scales is needed to attain effective, sustainable vector and disease control.