Publication Abstracts

Pérez García-Pando et al. 2014

Pérez García-Pando, C., M. Stanton, P. Diggle, S. Trzaska, R.L. Miller, J.P. Perlwitz, J.M. Baldasano, E. Cuevas, P. Ceccato, P. Yaka, and M. Thomson, 2014: Soil dust aerosols and wind as predictors of seasonal meningitis incidence in Niger. Environ. Health Perspect., 122, no. 7, 679-686, doi:10.1289/ehp.1306640.

Epidemics of meningococcal meningitis are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa during the dry season, a period when the region is affected by the Harmattan, a dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind blowing from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea. We examined the potential of climate-based statistical forecasting models to predict seasonal incidence of meningitis in Niger at both the national and district levels. We used time series of meningitis incidence from 1986 to 2006 for 38 districts in Niger. We tested models based on data that would be readily available in an operational framework, such as climate and dust, population, and the incidence of early cases prior to the onset of the meningitis season in January-May. Incidence was used as a proxy for immunological state, susceptibility and carriage in the population. We compared a range of negative binomial generalized linear models fitted to the meningitis data. At the national level, a model using early incidence in December and averaged November-December zonal wind provided the best fit (pseudo-R2 = 0.57), with zonal wind having the greatest impact. A model with surface dust concentration as a predictive variable performed indistinguishably well. At the district level, the best spatio-temporal model included zonal wind, dust concentration, early incidence in December, and population density (pseudo-R2 = 0.41). We showed that wind and dust information, and incidence in the early dry season predict part of the year-to-year variability of the seasonal incidence of meningitis at both national and district levels in Niger. Models of this form could provide an early-season alert that wind, dust and other conditions are potentially conducive to an epidemic.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{pe00500f,
  author={Pérez García-Pando, C. and Stanton, M. and Diggle, P. and Trzaska, S. and Miller, R. L. and Perlwitz, J. P. and Baldasano, J. M. and Cuevas, E. and Ceccato, P. and Yaka, P. and Thomson, M.},
  title={Soil dust aerosols and wind as predictors of seasonal meningitis incidence in Niger},
  year={2014},
  journal={Environmental Health Perspectives},
  volume={122},
  number={7},
  pages={679--686},
  doi={10.1289/ehp.1306640},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - pe00500f
AU  - Pérez García-Pando, C.
AU  - Stanton, M.
AU  - Diggle, P.
AU  - Trzaska, S.
AU  - Miller, R. L.
AU  - Perlwitz, J. P.
AU  - Baldasano, J. M.
AU  - Cuevas, E.
AU  - Ceccato, P.
AU  - Yaka, P.
AU  - Thomson, M.
PY  - 2014
TI  - Soil dust aerosols and wind as predictors of seasonal meningitis incidence in Niger
JA  - Environ. Health Perspect.
JO  - Environmental Health Perspectives
VL  - 122
IS  - 7
SP  - 679
EP  - 686
DO  - 10.1289/ehp.1306640
ER  -

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