Ecoepidemiology of leptospirosis in the urban slums of Brazil

新出现和重新出现的感染现在被广泛认为是对人类健康的紧迫和日益严重的全球威胁。这一点在城市贫民窟中尤为重要，因为在那里，人们通常非常拥挤，往往天生就很脆弱，而且与动物和环境中的传染源非常接近。钩端螺旋体病是一种由鼠传播的螺旋体引起的人畜共患疾病，随着贫民窟在全世界迅速扩大，已成为一个重要的健康问题。在巴西等国，每年在季节性暴雨期间，贫民窟社区都会发生大规模流行病。这些暴发与危及生命的表现有关，如肺出血综合征，其病死率> 50%。随着世界贫民窟人口到2025年翻一番达到20亿，钩端螺旋体病的负担继续增加。因此，我们需要解决我们对钩端螺旋体病传播动力学的理解方面的关键差距，以便能够在贫民窟社区确定和有效实施新颖和知情的预防战略。

PROJECT SUMMARY Emerging and re-emerging infections are now widely acknowledged to be an urgent and growing global threat to human health. Nowhere is this more important than in urban slums, where humans are typically crowded, often inherently vulnerable, and live in close proximity with animal and environmental reservoirs of infection. Leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease caused by a spirochetal agent transmitted by rats, has emerged as an important health problem as slum settlements have expanded rapidly worldwide. In countries such as Brazil, large epidemics occur each year in slum communities during seasonal periods of heavy rainfall. These outbreaks are associated with life-threatening manifestations such as pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome (LPHS), for which case fatality is >50%. The burden of leptospirosiswili continue to increase as the world's slum population doubles to two billion by 2025. We therefore need to address critical gaps in our understanding of the transmission dynamics of leptospirosis such that novel and informed strategies for prevention can be identified and effectively implemented in slum communities.