Water-Borne Cholera Outbreak in East Africa and the Middle East
Doctors are concerned that an outbreak of cholera, which began in 2015 and spread throughout east Africa and the Middle East, threatens to worsen with the upcoming rainy season.
Doctors are concerned that an outbreak of cholera, which began in 2015 and spread throughout east Africa and the Middle East, threatens to worsen with the upcoming rainy season.
The seasonality of cholera is described in various study areas throughout the world. However, no study examines how temporal cycles of the disease vary around the world or reviews its hypothesized causes. This paper reviews the literature on the seasonality of cholera and describes its temporal cycles by compiling and analyzing 32 years of global cholera data. This paper also provides a detailed literature review on regional patterns and environmental and climatic drivers of cholera patterns. Cholera data are compiled from 1974 to 2005 from the World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Reports, a database that includes all reported cholera cases in 140 countries. The data are analyzed to measure whether season, latitude, and their interaction are significantly associated with the country-level number of outbreaks in each of the 12 preceding months using separate negative binomial regression models for northern, southern, and combined hemispheres.
Significant pasture degradation and water shortages have been reported in parts of Somalia due to dry weather and high evaporation rates (FSNAU 18/03/2016). In total, one million people are estimated to be affected by the drought (DRC 11/03/2016). The most affected areas are the northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland Hiraan and Gedo regions in South central Somalia.In northern regions, two consecutive below-average rain seasons (July–September andOctober–December) have severely affected pasture and water conditions, and the current dry season (January–March) is worsening the situation.
Below-normal rain fall and drought conditions are leading to large-scale food insecurity, abnormal out migration of livestock, rising water prices, and a sharp increase in debt levels among poor households. Farmers and herders are the most affected (OCHA 09/03/2016). Some relief is expected with the 2016 rainy season in April, which is forecasted to be average