An exploration of land use and poverty as an integrative model for mitigating Chagas disease in El Salvador

Chagas disease is a neglected tropical parasitic disease that is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and that is transmitted by several insect vectors in the subfamily Triatominae. Research studies suggest that the vector ecology of Chagas disease may be impacted by anthropogenic changes to na...

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Veröffentlicht in:Bios (Madison, N.J.) N.J.), 2020-10, Vol.91 (2), p.125-132
Hauptverfasser: Choi, Joyce, Carmona-Galindo, Víctor, Paredes, Guillermo Recinos, Marín Recinos, María Fernanda, de Abrego, Vianney Castañeda
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Chagas disease is a neglected tropical parasitic disease that is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and that is transmitted by several insect vectors in the subfamily Triatominae. Research studies suggest that the vector ecology of Chagas disease may be impacted by anthropogenic changes to natural habitats. The objective of this study was to characterize linkages between poverty levels and diverse land use practices throughout El Salvador. Working at the municipal level, we used geographic information systems (GIS) to intersect map-layers containing land use types and poverty index values. The resulting intersect map was used to characterize the alpha-diversity of different agricultural, natural, and mixed land use types. We found that the richness, diversity, and evenness of municipal land use types changed with municipal poverty-level, size, population density, and population sex ratio. We also detected that changes in green space, natural landscapes, and agricultural landscapes correlated with municipal sociodemographic considerations. Given the broad exploratory connections between the vector ecology of Triatominae and the socio-demographics of land use practices, we propose that a multidisciplinary approach will be more effective in mitigating Chagas disease in El Salvador.
ISSN:0005-3155
1943-6289
DOI:10.1893/BIOS-D-19-00006