Influência das variáveis meteorológicas sobre a ocorrência do dengue em Campina Grande-PB.

Abstract

Changes in the town urbanization process, temperature variations, and rain regime have contributed to an increasing occurrence of dengue in most towns. The present work aims to issue guidelines on control practices of diseases, verifying the distribution of ailments in the suburbs of Campina Grande-PB, according to age, sex, race/color, and education together with dengue correlations with air temperature and precipitation. The research was carried out with autocthonous cases from that city in the 2001-2009 period. The city was subdivided into four areas considering proximity to the suburbs whose dengue data were obtained from records of Sistema de Agravo de Notificação of Secretaria Estadual de Saúde, 3º regional sector, and the meteorological data furnished by the Unidade Acadêmica de Ciências Atmosféricas. The socio-demographic data were directly and descriptively analyzed, making simple correlations of dengue cases with meteorological variables. Cases of dengue mostly occurred in the 2001-2003 years, remarkably decreasing as the Plano Nacional de Controle do Dengue was implanted in 2004. Conceição in area I, Catolé in area II, and Acácio Figueiredo in area III were the suburbs which presented the highest number of cases of the disease, including Pedregal in area IV, which outstood with the highest number of cases in its sector and in the town. Young and young-adult individuals were the age groups most affected by the disease. The females were most infected in all the periods of the research, including the mulatas, and individuals with incomplete fundamental education. A great number of responses were given as “ignored.” April and May were the months with the highest number of cases, coinciding with the beginning of the rain season in Campina Grande-PB. Yet, using Pearson and Sparman´s correlation in the standardized data of maximum air temperature, thermal amplitude, precipitation and dengue, we couldn´t detect any significant correlation. From the physical and biological viewpoint, however, it is known that precipitation, mainly, can directly or indirectly influence cases of dengue regardless of location, with much interference from infrastructure and education of the municipality dwellers.