Poverty, sanitation, and Leptospira transmission pathways in residents from four Brazilian slums

Abstract

Residents of urban slums suffer from a high burden of zoonotic diseases due to individual, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. We conducted a cross-sectional sero-survey in four urban slums in Salvador, Brazil, to characterize how poverty and sanitation contribute to the transmission of rat-borne leptospirosis. Sero-prevalence in the 1,318 participants ranged between 10.0 and 13.3%. We found that contact with environmental sources of contamination, rather than presence of rat reservoirs, is what leads to higher risk for residents living in areas with inadequate sanitation. Further, poorer residents may be exposed away from the household, and ongoing governmental interventions were not associated with lower transmission risk. Residents at higher risk were aware of their vulnerability, and their efforts improved the physical environment near their household, but did not reduce their infection chances. This study highlights the importance of understanding the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of risk, which ought to guide intervention efforts.

Author summary

Globally, more than 1 billion residents live in urban slums, where inadequate sanitation increases the spread of pathogens and their animal hosts. Leptospirosis is a globally distributed bacterial disease, and in urban areas the bacteria is spread by brown rats. Humans become infected upon exposure to water or soil/mud that was contaminated with the urine of infected rats. In four urban slums in the city of Salvador, Brazil, we used a range of individual, socioeconomic, and environmental variables to understand how they influence to one another and define o leptospirosis exposure in residents. Poverty and sanitation influenced the degree to which residents were exposed to sewer water and mud. Further, we found that while residents tried to improve the physical environment near their household, living in an area with poor sanitation mean that their infection risk remained high. This work highlight the importance of socioeconomic and environmental factors in determining disease risk, and suggests that governmental interventions should focus on improving sanitation changes in the poorest parts of the community.