Mudanças no uso e cobertura do solo e ocorrência de dengue em Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

Several studies have already demonstrated the relationship between the loss of natural habitats and the incidence of diseases caused by vectors, such as dengue, which is an acute febrile disease, considered a serious public health problem. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between land use changes between 2009 and 2019 and the occurrence of dengue fever in 2015 and 2019 by municipality, using the state of Minas Gerais as a case study. For this, secondary data obtained from openly available sources were used. Natural vegetation cover data were obtained from the MAPBiomas platform and dengue occurrence data from DataSUS, in addition to socioeconomic indicators from the IBGE. Between 2015 and 2019, 1,255,731 cases of dengue were recorded throughout the state of Minas Gerais, ranging from 0 to 227 per thousand inhabitants between municipalities. The occurrence of dengue was distributed throughout all regions of Minas Gerais, being high in different municipalities in climatic and socioeconomic aspects. In general, municipalities with net loss of natural vegetation, predominantly located in the Cerrado biome, had the highest number of dengue cases in the period studied. Despite the significant positive relationship between these two variables, three of the eight socioeconomic parameters analyzed also affected the occurrence of dengue: population density, human development index (positively) and Gini inequality index (negatively). These results indicate that, contrary to expectations, municipalities with better social conditions had more dengue cases. Our study indicates that natural vegetation is, directly or indirectly, involved in the ecosystem service of dengue control, despite the occurrence of this disease being affected by multiple factors that interact in a complex way. Thus, the fight against deforestation must be complemented by a continuous investment in public health policies and reduction of social inequalities in the fight against this disease.