Applied climatology: The study of dengue to city of São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil.

Abstract

Dengue is a viral disease, transmitted by Aedes aegypti, which presents its spatial distribution related to climatic influences, with wide tropical distribution. The study analyzed the relationship between climate and dengue incidence rates, between 2015 and 2016, in the city of São Luís-MA. Descriptive and analytical statistical procedures were performed to extract information from the levels and forms of relations between the climatic variables and the number of cases of the disease, as well as the degree of contribution to the scenario analysed using Principal Component Analyses (PCA), based on their correlation. From 2015 to 2016, 7,143 notifications of dengue cases were registered for the municipality, with more than 2/3 only in 2016. High but not extreme temperatures and the high humidity, caused by rainfall levels and the proximity of the oceanic masses and the equator, are propitious to the development of the vector, presenting a distinct trend after the optimum point. For precipitation and humidity, the cases correlated directly proportional, as expected, presenting the highest number of cases of the disease for the periods of higher values of these variables. Although the temperatures have a positive association, in this study, the high temperatures had a directly proportional influence up to 29°, being inversely proportional for higher ranges. The atmospheric pressure and wind speed were not very expressive in the analyses, contributing little to the cases analyzed.