ANALISIS ESPACIAL Y EPIDEMIOLOGICO SOBRE LEPTOSPIROSIS HUMANA EN PUERTO RICO, 1996 a 2014

Abstract

An ecological study was conducted with the confirmed cases of human leptospirosis reported to the Surveillance System of the Puerto Rico Department of Health between 1996 and 2014. The main purpose was to evaluate the spatial distribution of the occurrence of human leptospirosis and to associate this distribution with certain environmental and hydroclimatic factors through the use of Geographic Information Systems and Poisson regression models. It was observed that the population in census tracts with high annual average precipitation (1,882 2,726 mm) had 65 % (IRR = 1.65, 95 % CI: 1.32, 2.08) of excess risk of leptospirosis than those who did not expose themselves. In addition, the data suggested that cases of leptospirosis were spatially clustered showing hot spots in the central west of Puerto Rico.