TY - JOUR KW - Animals KW - Environmental Exposure KW - Ethiopia KW - Geographic Information Systems KW - Humans KW - leprosy KW - Mycobacterium leprae KW - Rain KW - Risk Assessment KW - Tropical Climate AU - Argaw AT AU - Shannon E J AU - Assefa A AU - Mikru FS AU - Mariam BK AU - Malone JB AB -

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.

BT - Geospatial health C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18686236?dopt=Abstract CN - TADESSE 2006 DA - 2006 Nov DO - 10.4081/gh.2006.285 IS - 1 J2 - Geospat Health LA - eng N2 -

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.

PY - 2006 SP - 105 EP - 13 T2 - Geospatial health TI - A geospatial risk assessment model for leprosy in Ethiopia based on environmental thermal-hydrological regime analysis. UR - https://geospatialhealth.net/index.php/gh/article/view/285/285 VL - 1 SN - 1970-7096 ER -