Epidemiology of visceral leishmaniasis through spatial analysis, in Belo Horizonte municipality, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The geographic information system approach has permitted integration between demographic, socio-economic and environmental data, providing correlation between information from several data banks. In the current work, occurrence of human and canine visceral leishmaniases and insect vectors (Lutzomyia longipalpis) as well as biogeographic information related to 9 areas that comprise the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between April 2001 and March 2002 were correlated and georeferenced. By using this technique it was possible to define concentration loci of canine leishmaniasis in the following regions: East; Northeast; Northwest; West; and Venda Nova. However, as for human leishmaniasis, it was not possible to perform the same analysis. Data analysis has also shown that 84.2% of the human leishmaniasis cases were related with canine leishmaniasis cases. Concerning biogeographic (altitude, area of vegetation influence, hydrographic, and areas of poverty) analysis, only altitude showed to influence emergence of leishmaniasis cases. A number of 4673 canine leishmaniasis cases and 64 human leishmaniasis cases were georeferenced, of which 67.5 and 71.9%, respectively, were living between 780 and 880 m above the sea level. At these same altitudes, a large number of phlebotomine sand flies were collected. Therefore, we suggest control measures for leishmaniasis in the city of Belo Horizonte, giving priority to canine leishmaniasis foci and regions at altitudes between 780 and 880 m.