GIS-Based analysis of the spatial distribution of dengue disease in Mysuru district and India, 2013-2018

Abstract

Background and Objective: The dengue disease has become growing menace in the public health concern due to its re-emergence in tropical and subtropical regions. To understand the epidemiology and spatial distribution, a retrospective surveillance study was conducted in Mysore district of Karnataka and India for the year 2013 to 2018. Methods: A comprehensive data about dengue infection, prevalence, transmission and severity in 8 taluks of Mysore district of Karnataka and 35 states of India were mapped through Arc/Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Spatial statistical analysis was performed to identify hot spots and cold spots of dengue disease. Similarly, inverse distance weight (IDW), a spatial autocorrelation tool was also applied to understand the endemicity patterns in the study area. Results: The analysis revealed that Mysore district and India had an increased rate of re-emerging dengue cases during the year 2017 and 2018. The use of GIS software revealed the number of incidences, high and low clustered areas, hotspot and cold spot locations of the registered dengue cases. The IDW tool was used to identify the disease intensity in Mysore district and India. Mysore city stood highest in the district and the lowest clustered area was found to be HD Kote in 2018. Karnataka (17018) stood the third-highest and Arunachal Pradesh (15) stood lowest clustered area in India during 2017. The spatial autocorrelation was projected in the geographical space. Based on the disease, registered case intensity the taluks were characterized into high, average and low endemic areas. Conclusion: The study indicated that socio-economic and socio-cultural variables are highly correlated with the prevalence of Dengue. This visualization approach, IDW-GIS helps the public health officials to identify the zones of disease endemics in executing real-time decisions for preventive and precautionary strategies to control the prevalence of “Dengue-the vector-borne” disease effectively.