Aspectos epidemiológicos sobre a dengue e a influência de variáveis meteorológicas no processo de transmissão e detecção do agravo em um município maranhense

Abstract

Dengue is an arbovirus transmitted in Brazil by Aedes aegypti, the life cycle of this species is affected by environmental conditions, having great epidemiological importance in the world, in 2019 alone there were about 3.1 million cases in the American continent, causing deaths and impacts on the health system. Considering dengue as an epidemic in the country, this study was developed to analyze the epidemiological aspects of dengue in the city of Balsas-MA, correlating meteorological variables with the number of cases of the disease. This is a described, explanatory, documentary study with a quantitative approach. The investigation scenario was the municipality of Balsas-MA, the collection of data regarding dengue cases that occurred between 2018 and 2020 was carried out in the department of Epidemiological Surveillance, later the climatic data were downloaded (average monthly temperature, rainfall monthly and monthly average relative humidity) in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets on the INMET database site to correlate the influence of these variables on the increase in dengue cases. It was observed through the research results that the number of reported cases showed a large quantitative difference between the years, as in 2018 there were only 18 notifications, in 2019 there were 231 and in 2020 there were 132 cases, in this period there were no records of deaths and the places that had more cases in consecutive years were the rural area and the Potosí neighborhood. Regarding the gender of the participants, in 2018 there were more cases in males, while in 2019 and in 2020 there were more cases in females. In the three individuals evaluated, the most affected age group was between 19 and 40 years old and the least affected was the age group of elderly people over 61 years old. Regarding the influence of climatic factors on the increase in cases of the disease, it was identified that in the three consecutive years the number of cases increased in rainy, humid months and with favorable temperatures suggesting climatic influence, except in June 2019 when there were 34 cases in a dry month. Due to the limitations of Pearson's correlation coefficient, the only variables that presented a positive and moderate result were rainfall (r=0.43) and relative humidity (r=0.64) related to the number of cases of cases of dengue in 2020.