SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CHOLERA IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Spatial statistics is the process of extracting or creating new information about a set of geographic features to perform routine examination, assessment, evaluation, analysis or modeling of data in a geographic area based on pre-established and computerized criteria and standards. It is a technique for analyzing spatial data mostly on human scale. Complex issues arise in spatial analysis, many of which are neither clearly defined nor completely resolved. The most fundamental of these are the problems of defining the spatial location of the entities being studied (Scott and Getis, 2008).
Nigeria is a prime area in studying spatial patterns associated with diseases because it is a country where millions of people live in close proximity not only to other people but also to open and unsafe water sources and refuse dumps. It is also a country that is actively engaged in alteration of its aquatic ecosystems, a process often associated with changed disease ecologies (WHO 1993). Cholera is one of the deadliest diseases in Africa (WHO 1993), within 2-3 hours of unset symptoms, a previously healthy person may severely become dehydrated and if not treated may die within 24hours (Sack et al 2004; WHO 2010). A link between cholera, phytoplankton blooms and copepod zooplankton has been demonstrated in Asia (Colwell et al., 1996). The African Great Lakes have been suspected to play a role as reservoirs of the bacteria Vibrio cholerae (v.cholerea), while human infection and movement are probably involved in the propagation of the disease inland. During the 19th century, cholera spread repeatedly from its original reservoir or source in the Ganges delta in India to the rest of the world, before receding to South Asia (WHO 2008). Six pandemics were recorded that killed millions of people across Europe, Africa and the Americas. The seventh pandemic, which is still on going, started in 1961 in South Asia, reached Africa in 1971 and the Americas in 1991.
The disease is now considered to be endemic in many countries and the pathogen causing cholera cannot currently be eliminated from the environment, WHO(2008). Regions of the world where cholera is currently prevalent are Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East. Imported cases occasionally occur in richer countries in travellers returning from endemic areas, (National Travel Health Network and Centre (2007). The disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standards of hygiene, but it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed, (WHO, 2009). The mechanistic basis for a climate-cholera connection involves multiple pathways and the primary transmission from environmental reservoirs initiates seasonal outbreaks of cholera in endemic regions, (Pascualet al, 2002).
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SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CHOLERA IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
