Cholera Threat to Humans in Ghana Is Influenced by Both Global and Regional Climatic Variability |
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Authors: | Guillaume Constantin de Magny Bernard Cazelles Jean-François Guégan |
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Institution: | 1. GEMI, UMR CNRS/IRD 2724, Centre IRD de Montpellier, Equipe “Evolution des Systèmes Symbiotiques”, 911 avenue Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier cedex 05, France 2. US ESPACE 140, IRD, 500 rue Jean-Fran?ois Breton, 34093, Montpellier cedex 05, France 3. CNRS-UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d’Ulm, 75230, Paris cedex 05, France
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Abstract: | Cholera, an acute diarrheal illness, is caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae after ingestion of contaminated water or food. The disease had disappeared from most of the developed countries in the last
50 years, but cholera epidemics remain a major public health problem in many developing countries, most often localized in
tropical areas. Cholera is an infectious disease for which a relationship between disease temporal patterns and climate has
been demonstrated, but only in an endemic context and for local areas of Asia and South America. Until now, similar studies
have not been done in an epidemic context, on the African continent, although the largest number of cholera cases has been
reported for those countries by the World Health Organization. The wavelet method was used in order to explore periodicity
in (i) a long-time monthly cholera incidence in Ghana, West Africa, (ii) proxy environmental variables, and (iii) climatic
indices time series, from 1975 to 1995. Cross-analysis were done to explore links between these time series, i.e., between
cholera and climate. Results showed strong statistical association (coherency) from the end of the 1980s, between cholera
outbreak resurgences in Ghana and the climatic/environmental parameters under scrutiny. Further examination of the existence
of common spatial and temporal patterns in infectious diseases on the continent of Africa will permit development of more
effective treatment of disease. |
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Keywords: | cholera climate Africa communicable disease statistical disease outbreaks |
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