The Use of Geospatial Technology for Epidemiological Chagas Analysis in Bolivia

Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma Cruzi and transmitted by the Vinchuca. Bolivia is the country with the highest prevalence in the South American region; for example, in 2015, there was a prevalence of 33.4%. This disease causes severe intestinal and cardiac problems in the long term, 30% of the cases register cardiac symptoms, and 10% have alterations in the esophagus or colon. This research aims to analyze the relationship between environmental factors and Chagas outbreaks in an area of Bolivia to identify the environmental conditions in which the disease is transmitted, using epidemiological, meteorological data and also environmental indexes extracted from Landsat 8 satellite images. Through a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of the environmental indexes extracted from the satellite images and the meteorological information, has been found that the environmental conditions that have a correlation with the occurrence of cases are: temperature, relative humidity, visibility, Normalized Difference Soil Index (NDSI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI).