Abstract
A population’s health makes it possible to draw conclusions about a country’s general development level. In connection with local climatic changes, for example, we can assess how well a society adjusts to the new conditions. To that effect, it has been observed during the last few years that global climate change can also affect human health in various ways. We can differentiate direct health impacts (e.g. extreme weather events, natural catastrophes caused by the weather) from indirect ones. However, the indirect consequences cause by far the greater damages to health. They are being spread increasingly by vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, etc.). Especially when a vector-carried infectious disease (e.g. malaria) migrates into areas where it is not endemic, considerable societal problems can result. The people living there would be immunologically unprepared.
Highlights
Rwanda, a mountainous tropical country in sub-Saharan Africa, is commonly regarded as a potential malarial region because of its location
CLIMATE AND MALARIA—THE RECCIR PROJECT. As it is described in [1], an analysis of climate measurement series from Rwandan weather stations revealed that the division into four Rwandan climate zones could not hold water against a more detailed analysis based on currently available data
The analysis of the climate measurement series for the Rwandan weather stations began with evaluating the time series by decades, above all in order to understand the spatial changes in the regional and local climatic situation
Summary
A mountainous tropical country in sub-Saharan Africa, is commonly regarded as a potential malarial region because of its location. Viewed from the perspective of malaria’s incidence rate, the country’s pronounced terrain relief, with elevations ranging from 900 meters to over 4500 meters above sea level (a.s.l.), confers a decided advantage Because of their elevations large parts of Rwanda must be regarded too cold to prevent the anopheles mosquito from spreading to the fullest extent (that would allow it to exploit its epidemiological potential). For today’s Rwanda, as for many other malarial regions, an already mentioned altitude limit of 1000 m a.s.l. is still considered valid This would mean that the epidemiological potential of vectors at higher altitudes should considerably diminish. Based on this theoretical foundation, the government of Rwanda still estimates the danger of being infected with malaria very low, except for some areas in the sparsely populated south. Since it is presumed that the data base rests on information outdated as the depiction of Rwanda’s regional climate zones, it behoves us to pursue how this problem is linked to the regional climate changes of recent decades
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