Distribución espacial del dengue basado en herramientas del Sistema de Información Geográfica, Valle de Aburrá, Colombia.

Tropical diseases are infections caused by mosquitoes and flies which transmit parasites, bacteria or viruses of people. One of these diseases is dengue, which particularly attacks those living in poor or marginalized conditions, proliferating in places lacking basic sanitation, which has significantly increased the number of cases. Objective: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used in this paper for the purpose of modeling the spatial distribution patterns of tropical diseases. Monthly reports on dengue from the years 2008, 2009 and 2011 in the Aburrá valley, under the jurisdiction of Medellín, Colombia, were taken as a case study. Methodology: Dengue cases of which the Medellín Health Secretary was notified were spatially located using the addresses of the patients' homes. ArcGis 10 software was used to geo-spatially locate the cases, while IDW and Slope spatial analysis tools were employed to demonstrate that the dengue phenomenon complies with the principle of spatial auto-correlation. Results and discussion: The disease shows spatial patterns in the south-west sector of Medellín; the Altavista township and the Belén and Guayabal municipalities, and it would be of great interest to study this phenomenon with environmental variables and to have more tools available for decision-making in activities for preventing dengue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]