Relationship between El Niño-La Niña cycle and cutaneous leishmaniasis cases in Colombia, 2007 - 2021

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a public health problem in Colombia and is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD). On the other hand, the El Niño-La Niña cycle causes great climate variability every certain number of years. Furthermore, it is known that climatic variables such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity impact the life cycles of vectors, and it has been seen that these variables can modify the behavior of human populations. Thus, the study of the relationship between climatological phenomena and the epidemiological behavior of a disease of importance in Public Health, such as cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia, contributes to improving knowledge of the human-natural system interrelation in our country. Considering all of the above, the research project "Estimation of the relationship between the El Niño-La Niña cycle and the occurrence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia during the period 2007-2021" was proposed. This project aims to estimate the existing association between the El Niño-La Niña cycle and the occurrence of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia during the period 2007-2021. It is an ecological study of time series from secondary sources. The cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were obtained from the Colombian Public Health System (SIVIGILA), and the environmental data from the NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM). All cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis reported in Colombian municipalities with a minimum altitude of less than 1700 meters above sea level were included.