Environmental risk of leptospirosis infections in the Netherlands: Spatial modelling of environmental risk factors of leptospirosis in the Netherlands

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186987
• Publication Date: 2017-10-24T18:16:38Z
• Authors: Ente J. J. Rood; Marga G. A. Goris; Roan Pijnacker; Mirjam I. Bakker; Rudy A. Hartskeerl
• Keywords: Spatial epidemiology

Leptospirosis is a globally emerging zoonotic disease, associated with various climatic, biotic and abiotic factors. Mapping quantifying geographical variations in the occurrence of leptospirosis surrounding environment offer innovative methods to study disease transmission identify associations between environment. This aims investigate geographic incidence Netherlands environmental factors driving emergence disease. Individual case data derived over period 1995-2012 were geocoded aggregated by municipality. Environmental covariate extracted for each municipality stored spatial database. Spatial clusters identified using kernel density estimations quantified local autocorrelation statistics. Associations determined Simultaneous Autoregressive Models (SAR) explicitly modelling dependence model residuals. rates found be spatially clustered, showing marked pattern. Fitting autoregressive significantly improved fit revealed significant association coverage arable land, built up area, grassland sabulous clay soils. The could effectively modelled combination soil land-use variables accounting per resulting explicit risk predictions provide an important source information which will benefit clinical awareness on potential infections endemic areas.