Author/Authors :
Shirzadi ، Mohammad Reza Communicable Diseases Management Center - Ministry of Health and Medical Education , Javanbakht ، Mohammad Department of Remote Sensing and GIS - Faculty of Geography - Tehran University , Vatandoost ، Hassan Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, Department of Chemical Pollutants and Pesticides - School of Public Health, Institute for Environmental Research - Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Jesri ، Nahid Remote Sensing and GIS Centre - Shahid Beheshti University , Saghafipour ، Abedin Department of Public Health - Faculty of Health - Qom University of Medical Sciences , Fouladi-Fard ، Reza Research Center for Environmental Pollutants - Qom University of Medical Sciences , Omidi-Oskouei ، Alireza Department of Public Health - Faculty of Health - Qom University of Medical Sciences
Abstract :
Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a dermal and parasitic disease.. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of environmental and climate factors on spatial distribution of CL in northeastern Iran by utilizing remote sensing from 20 March 2016 to 19 March 2017. Methods: In this ecological study, the data were divided into two parts: The descriptive data on human CL cases were gathered from Communicable Diseases center of Iran. The remote sensing techniques and satellite imagery data (TRMM, MODIS-Aqua, MODIS-Terra and AMSR-2 with spatial resolution 0.25°, 0.05°, 5600m and 10km) of environ-mental and climate factors were used to determine the spatial pattern changes of cutaneous leishmaniasis incidence. Results: The incidence of CL in North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and South Khorasan was 35.80 per 100,000 people (309/863092), 34.14 per 100,000 people (2197/6,434,501) and 7.67 per 100,000 people (59/768,898), respectively. The incidence of CL had the highest correlation with soil moisture and evapotranspiration. Moreover, the incidence of dis-ease was significantly correlated with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and air humidity while it had the lowest correlation with rainfall. Furthermore, the CL incidence had an indirect correlation relation with the air tem-perature meaning that with an increase in the temperature, the incidence of disease decreased. Conclusion: As such, the incidence of disease was also higher in the northern regions; most areas of North Khorasan and northern regions of Razavi Khorasan; where the rainfall, vegetation, specific humidity, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture was higher than the southern areas.
Keywords :
Cutaneous leishmaniasis , Remote sensing , Climate , Iran
