The effect of land use change in the abundance of malaria cases in Northern Argentina

Abstract

Malaria is a parasitic disease widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. The appearance of malaria cases is determined by multiple factors including changes in land use, and climatic and environmental variables, which are key factors contributing to the prevalence and transmission of the disease. Remote sensing allows for the integrated analysis of vector-borne diseases for the purposes of disease management and control. The aim of the present research was to determine whether there is a relationship between the emergence and abundance of malaria cases and changes in land use, and, in climatic/environmental variables provided by remote sensing in San Ramón de la Nueva Orán (northwestern Salta, Argentina). Random Effect Poisson Regression was used to analyze the relationships. The emergence of malaria cases was related to decreases in piedmont rainforest of the Yungas Ecoregion, and increases both in Maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and in mean minimum temperature and relative humidity. These results were expected since environmental change derived from agriculture-driven deforestation together with climate change are likely factors driving transmission of this disease by affecting the biology and ecology of both vectors and malaria parasites.