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Photo Scott Wallace World Bank
The paper, Epidemiological shifts in visceral leishmaniasis incidence, relapse, and mortality in Brazil, 2007-2023: Analysis using National Notifiable Diseases Information System, has been published in the Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
The paper, led by IDDO’s WHO/TDR Fellow Dawit Getachew Assefa, sets out the long-term epidemiological trends in disease incidence, and identifies persistent hotspots in Tocantins, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Ceará, and Minas Gerais.
VL is a neglected tropical disease that is transmitted by female sandflies. It is the most severe of the three forms of leishmaniasis and is almost always fatal without treatment.
Brazil currently accounts for over 90% of VL cases reported in South America. But VL cases fell every year by around 6.0% between 2007-2023, likely due to improved vector control efforts, including insecticide spraying, canine reservoir control and improvements in housing and sanitation. In particular, a major drop in cases has been observed during 2019-2023.