Landscape Elements and Hantaan Virus–related Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome, People’s Republic of China

摘要

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is an important public health problem in the People's Republic of China, accounting for 90% of human cases reported glob-ally. In this study, a landscape epidemiologic approach, combined with geographic information system and remote sensing techniques, was applied to increase our under-standing of HFRS due to Hantaan virus and its relationship with landscape elements in China. The landscape elements considered were elevation, normalized difference vegeta-tion index (NDVI), precipitation, annual cumulative air tem-perature, land surface temperature, soil type, and land use. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that HFRS incidence was remarkably associated with elevation, NDVI, precipitation, annual cumulative air temperature, semihy-dromorphic soils, timber forests, and orchards. These fi nd-ings have important applications for targeting HFRS inter-ventions in mainland China