Abstract
Although visceral leishmaniasis disease is controlled overall in China, it remains a serious public health problem and remains fundamentally uncontrolled in Jiashi County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. During 2005–2015, there were two outbreaks in Jiashi County. Assessing the influence of meteorological factors on visceral leishmaniasis incidence is essential for its monitoring and control. In this study, we applied generalized estimating equations to assess the impact of meteorological factors on visceral leishmaniasis risk from 2005 to 2015. We also compared meteorological factors among years with Kruskal–Wallis test to explore possible reasons behind the two outbreaks that occurred during our study period. We found that temperature and relative humidity had very significant associations with visceral leishmaniasis risk and there were interactions between these factors. Increasing temperature or decreasing relative humidity could increase the risk of visceral leishmaniasis events. The outbreaks investigated might have been related to low relative humidity and high temperatures. Our findings will support the rationale for visceral leishmaniasis control in China.
Highlights
Leishmaniasis is considered one of the most neglected tropical diseases worldwide, yet this disease has received little attention and few resources despite its serious impacts on both economic development and quality of life [1]
We explored the reasons behind the outbreaks in Jiashi County by examining the annual and monthly characteristics of meteorological factors during the study period
Infectious disease outbreaks can be induced by a large migrant population entering an epidemic area, resulting in an increase in the non-immune population, or by a dramatic increase in the population number or density of the vector species, or prolonged growth and reproduction time, all of which are often owing to environmental damage or changes, such as those caused by deforestation
Summary
Leishmaniasis is considered one of the most neglected tropical diseases worldwide, yet this disease has received little attention and few resources despite its serious impacts on both economic development and quality of life [1]. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), known as kala-azar (KA), is a parasitic infectious disease that affects human health [2]. VL remains a serious public health threat in China [3]. Two epidemiological types (mountain type and desert type) of VL have been classified in western China, based on the ecosystem and source of infection [4,5]. The desert type is an anthroponotic disease that is endemic in the oases of the plains in Kashi Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region [5,6]. In Jiashi county, it is still unclear whether some kind of animal is the pathogen source [8]
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