OBJECTIVE To analyze the spatial and temporal occurrence of dengue fever and its association with the heterogeneity of urban environment characteristics. METHODS A total of 1,212 dengue cases, recorded in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (Sinan) between 1998 and 2006, in the city of Niterói, Southeastern Brazil, were georeferenced according to census tracts. These tracts were cl...

BACKGROUND The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) is the principal reservoir for leptospirosis in many urban settings. Few studies have identified markers for rat infestation in slum environments while none have evaluated the association between household rat infestation and Leptospira infection in humans or the use of infestation markers as a predictive model to stratify risk for leptospirosis. ...

Migration to urban areas is a regular phenomenon but climate induced displacement forced to migrate to cities over the recent years is a matter of concern. Increased frequency and severity of natural disasters by climate change over the past recent years are not only displacing people physically but also exposing to enhanced poverty by threatening their livelihoods temporarily and permanently. ...

Introduction India is urbanizing at a rapid pace. Moreover, a quarter of the urban population lives in slum areas [1]. Unfavorable social determinants in health and huge inequities in access to healthcare within urban India leave the urban poor with dismal health indicators [2]. The burden from chronic diseases is also on rise in India, disproportionately so for urban population, and is now the...

Objective: To study knowledge about reproductive health among female adolescents and to assess their treatment seeking behavior regarding reproductive health problems in an urban slum of Mumbai. Materials and methods: Cross sectional descriptive study was undertaken in an urban slum area of Mumbai for period of 3 months. All adolescent girls from 10 – 19 years of age, who had attained menarche,...

OBJECTIVES A large share of the urban population in developing countries lives in informal settlements or "slums" today. This study investigates the association between slum residence and health among adult Ghanaian women residing in the Accra Metropolitan Area. METHODS Health data collected as part of the Women's Health Study of Accra round II (WHSA-II) was combined with data from the Househ...

BACKGROUND The catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment indices offer guidance for developing appropriate health policies and intervention programs to decrease financial inequity. This study assesses socioeconomic inequalities in catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment in relation to self-reported non-communicable diseases (NCD) in urban Hanoi, Vietnam. METHODS A cross-se...

U rban populations have skyrocketed globally and today represent more than half of the world’s population. In some parts of the developing world, this growth has more-than-proportionately involved rural migration to informal settlements in and around cities, known more commonly as “slums”— densely populated urban areas characterized by poor-quality housing, a lack of adequate living space and p...

BACKGROUND Brazil's National Tuberculosis Control Program seeks to improve tuberculosis (TB) treatment in vulnerable populations. Slum residents are more vulnerable to TB due to a variety of factors, including their overcrowded living conditions, substandard infrastructure, and limited access to healthcare compared to their non-slum dwelling counterparts. Directly observed treatment (DOT) has b...