Prevalence of japanese encephalitis and its modulation by weather variables

Abstract

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a major public health problem in 1%). The seasonal pattern on occurrence of JE cases clustered among different seasons (that is, monsoon, winter and summer) showed that JE cases occurred in all seasons of the year. The vector, Culex tritaeniorhynchus per man hour density was correlated with (minimum and maximum temperature, p < 0.035 and p < 0.013), whereas Culex gelidus was positively correlated with rainfall (p < 0.05). JE transmission in temperate areas is dependent on climatic factors; however this study suggests that effects of weather variables such as rainfall, temperature and relative humidity might be responsible for increase of vector populations and also the JEV infection. Apart from these, the other factors like agricultural practices, virus amplifying hosts such as pigs and its density and virus reservoirs might also play a major role in the disease transmission in the study areas.