Surto de toxoplasmose: uma abordagem epidemiológica com uso de geotecnologias.

Abstract

Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is a universally distributed anthropozoonosis transmitted by the ingestion of tissue cysts or Toxoplasma gondii oocysts present in water, soil or contaminated food. In the literature there is description of outbreaks of toxoplasmosis, whose investigations could have been optimized with the use of geotechnologies. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been widely used to produce representative digital maps of situations of risk and health vulnerabilities that a population is exposed, being able to expand as information to health control, surveillance and prevention, or even, in case of outbreaks, to generate hypotheses regarding the probable source of infection. Objective: To analyze a toxoplasmosis outbreak in a residential condominium in São Luis – MA. Methodology: An ecological study based on a historical database of the investigation of an outbreak of toxoplasmosis occurred in 2006 in a residential condominium of São Luís - Maranhão. There were 110 people among residents, employees and domestic workers, 90 had their blood collected for serological analysis by ELISA (researcher technique), being classified as susceptible or not to infection and determined the attack rate of the outbreak. The software STATA 10 and Fisher's exact test were used for statistical analysis of the data. For geostatistical analysis, the Kernel estimator and the IDW interpolator with the help of ArcGIS® 10.1 e QGIS® 2.14 software were used. For a time analysis of the date of onset of symptoms, Excel® 2010. Results: There were 33 cases of acute or recent infection among 53 susceptible individuals, with attack rate of 62.26%. Women were more affected (60.61%).Among them one was pregnant and 15 patients of fertile age, a group that presented an attack rate of 65.21%. Among those susceptible, the use of the filter at the faucet was a factor associated with illness (p =0.049). Spatial analyzes in both techniques showed relatively similar patterns of case distribution, with the Kernel technique better representing the reality of the outbreak. The geostatistical tests did not reveal a proximity association in relation to only the distance (area) from the suspected source (condominium water box). Conclusion: The outbreak presented a high attack rate mainly among women of childbearing age, a group that deserves attention in the evaluation of the possibility of vertical transmission. The outbreak was likely caused by water transmission, from the contamination of the water box of the condominium. Digital maps of the cases and the susceptible ones served as a more didactic form of representation of the outbreak, as well as an example for the application of geostatistical techniques in order to complement an epidemiological analysis in other studies dealing with events in public health.