Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
medicine
Temporal dynamics and impact of climate factors on the incidence of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in central Tunisia
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Volume 6, No. 5, Article e1633, Year 2012
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Background: Old world Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is a vector-borne human disease caused by Leishmania major, a unicellular eukaryotic parasite transmitted by pool blood-feeding sand flies mainly to wild rodents, such as Psammomys obesus. The human beings who share the rodent and sand fly habitats can be subverted as both sand fly blood resource. ZCL is endemic in the Middle East, Central Asia, Subsaharan and North Africa. Like other vector-borne diseases, the incidence of ZCL displayed by humans varies with environmental and climate factors. However, so far no study has addressed the temporal dynamics or the impact of climate factors on the ZCL risk. Principal Findings: Seasonality during the same epidemiologic year and interval between ZCL epidemics ranging from 4 to 7 years were demonstrated. Models showed that ZCL incidence is raising i) by 1.8% (95% confidence intervals CI:0.0-3.6%) when there is 1 mm increase in the rainfall lagged by 12 to 14 months ii) by 5.0% (95% CI: 0.8-9.4%) when there is a 1% increase in humidity from July to September in the same epidemiologic year. Conclusion/Significance: Higher rainfall is expected to result in increased density of chenopods, a halophytic plant that constitutes the exclusive food of Psammomys obesus. Consequently, following a high density of Psammomys obesus, the pool of Leishmania major transmissible from the rodents to blood-feeding female sand flies could lead to a higher probability of transmission to humans over the next season. These findings provide the evidence that ZCL is highly influenced by climate factors that could affect both Psammomys obesus and the sand fly population densities. © 2012 Toumi et al.
Authors & Co-Authors
Toumi, Amine
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Chlif, Sadok
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Bettaieb, Jihène
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Ben-Alaya-Bouafif, Nissaf
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Boukthir, Aïcha
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Ahmadi, Zaher E.
Tunisia
Regional Directorate of Public Health
Ben Salah, Afif A.
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Statistics
Citations: 92
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pntd.0001633
ISSN:
19352727
e-ISSN:
19352735
Research Areas
Food Security
Infectious Diseases
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Cohort Study
Study Locations
Multi-countries
Tunisia
Participants Gender
Female