01911nas a2200337   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001200055653002700067653001300094653003500107653001100142653001200153653002500165653000900190653002000199653002100219100001300240700001600253700001300269700001300282700001400295700001400309245012400323856006700447300001100514490000600525050001700531520101100548022001401559       2006                            d  c2006 Nov10aAnimals10aEnvironmental Exposure10aEthiopia10aGeographic Information Systems10aHumans10aleprosy10aMycobacterium leprae10aRain10aRisk Assessment10aTropical Climate1 aArgaw AT1 aShannon E J1 aAssefa A1 aMikru FS1 aMariam BK1 aMalone JB00aA geospatial risk assessment model for leprosy in Ethiopia based on environmental thermal-hydrological regime analysis.  uhttps://geospatialhealth.net/index.php/gh/article/view/285/285  a105-130 v1  aTADESSE 20063 a<p>Geospatial methods were used to study the associations of the environmental thermal-hydrological regime with leprosy prevalence in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. Prediction models were developed that indicated leprosy prevalence was related to: (i) long-term normal climate grid data on temperature and moisture balance (rain/potential evapo-transpiration); (ii) satellite surveillance data on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and daytime earth surface temperature (Tmax) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR); and (iii) a Genetic Algorithm Rule-Set Prediction (GARP) model based on NDVI and Tmax data in relation to leprosy prevalence data. Our results suggest that vertical transmission is not the only means of acquiring leprosy and support earlier reports that a major factor that governs transmission of leprosy is the viability of Mycobacterium leprae outside the human body which is related to the thermal-hydrologic regime of the environment.</p>  a1970-7096