Disease Traced to Extreme Weather
Study of cholera rates in Bangladesh could link global warming to infectious outbreaks.
By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer
An analysis of four decades of disease records from Bangladesh shows that periods of extreme rainfall, drought or high temperatures can sharply increase cholera rates, a pattern that some researchers believe bolsters claims that global warming will increase disease outbreaks.
The effect of weather on disease can be dramatic. In one period of turbulent weather from 1992 to 1994, the study found a six- to eight-fold increase in the number of cholera cases.
The study, published today in the journal Nature, found lesser increases during other periods of severe weather....
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Scientists have long suspected that climate variability fosters the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue fever. But firm conclusions have proved elusive because other factors, particularly migration rates and immunity from past exposure and vaccination, also have large effects.
In this case, complete demographic and disease records in Bangladesh helped investigators separate out those factors....
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-cholera4aug04,0,2423790.story?coll=la-home-science
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