The association between temperature, rainfall and humidity with common climate-sensitive infectious diseases in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries for climate change. This observational study examined the association of temperature, humidity and rainfall with six common climate-sensitive infectious diseases in adults (malaria, diarrheal disease, enteric fever, encephalitis, pneumonia and bacterial meningitis) in northeastern Bangladesh. Subjects admitted to the adult medicine ward of a tertiary referral hospital in Sylhet, Bangladesh from 2008 to 2012 with a diagnosis of one of the six chosen climate-sensitive infectious diseases were enrolled in the study. Climate-related data were collected from the Bangladesh Meteorological Institute. Disease incidence was then analyzed against mean temperature, humidity and average rainfall for the Sylhet region. Statistical significance was determined using Mann-Whitney test, Chi-square test and ANOVA testing. 5033 patients were enrolled (58% male, 42% female, ratio 1.3:1). All six diseases showed highly significant (p = 0.01) rises in incidence between the study years 2008 (540 cases) and 2012 (1330 cases), compared with no significant rise in overall all-cause hospital admissions in the same period (p = 0.19). The highest number of malaria (135), diarrhea (266) and pneumonia (371) cases occurred during the rainy season. On the other hand, the maximum number of enteric fever (408), encephalitis (183) and meningitis (151) cases occurred during autumn, which follows the rainy season. A positive (P = 0.01) correlation was observed between increased temperature and the incidence of malaria, enteric fever and diarrhea, and a negative correlation with encephalitis, meningitis and pneumonia. Higher humidity correlated (P = 0.01) with a higher number of cases of malaria and diarrhea, but inversely correlated with meningitis and encephalitis. Higher incidences of encephalitis and meningitis occurred while there was low rainfall. Incidences of diarrhea, malaria and enteric fever, increased with rainfall, and then gradually decreased. The findings support a relationship between weather patterns and disease incidence, and provide essential baseline data for future large prospective studies.

Diarrhoeal Diseases in Children Under Five Years Exhibited Space-Time Disparities and Priority Areas for Control Interventions in Rwanda

“…The decline of diarrhoea incidence rate was observed toward the end on drier season earlier to maximum rainfall. Similar findings have been reported by other researchers showing negative association between rainfall and diarrhoeal diseases [14,28]. Another study from Ghana reported a negative relationship between diarrhoeal diseases and rainfall by analyzing routine data reported on childhood diarrhoea [29].…”

“…In addition to that a positively association was observed between increase of maximum temperature and increase of diarrhea cases. Similar findings have been elucidated in different studies [14,16,17,20,[23][24][25]. The increase cases observed during months with highest temperature justified by plausible explanations; higher temperature promotes the development of and growth of bacteria even though some evidences suggest that the survival and transmission of enteric viruses are increased during low temperature [26].…”

“…Diarrhoeal diseases affect more children U5 years in Rwanda; the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) reported gastro-intestinal diseases as the 9th among the top causes of death in 2014-2015 [8] and the second leading cause of morbidity in U5 children in health centers in 2016 after acute respiratory infection [9]. The morbidity of childhood diarrhoeal diseases has been observed in several studies to be associated with climate changes [10][11][12][13][14]. Furthermore, geographical and time disparities of diarrhoeal diseases were reported in different studies [10,[15][16][17][18].…”

Diarrhoeal Diseases in Children under five years Exhibits space-time disparities and priority areas for control interventions in Rwanda

“…In addition to that a positively association was observed between increase of monthly average temperature and increase of diarrhea cases. Similar ndings have been elucidated in different studies [14,16,17,20,[23][24][25]. The increase cases observed during months with highest temperature justi ed by plausible explanations; higher temperature promotes the development of and growth of bacteria even though some evidences suggest that the survival and transmission of enteric viruses are increased during low temperature [26].…”

The Epidemiological Overview of Acute Flaccid Paralysis Cases in Surabaya During 2014-2017

“…These components indirectly affect the condition of the human immune system. This condition is caused by climate changes that can increase the biting rate and vector reproduction rate and also shorten the pathogen incubation period (Chowdhury et al, 2018). This season's depiction of AFP cases can be used as information for monitoring and early detection so that it can increase the vigilance of medical personnel to carry out prevention in the case-increasing month.…”