El Niño and health

R. Sari Kovats; Menno J. Bouma; Shakoor Hajat; Eve Worrall; Andy Haines

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14695-8

El Niño and health

R. Sari Kovats, Menno J. Bouma, Shakoor Hajat, Eve Worrall, Andy Haines

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

384 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate event that originates in the Pacific Ocean but has wide-ranging consequences for weather around the world, and is especially associated with droughts and floods. The irregular occurrence of El Niño and La Niña events has implications for public health. On a global scale, the human effect of natural disasters increases during El Niño. The effect of ENSO on cholera risk in Bangladesh, and malaria epidemics in parts of South Asia and South America has been well established. The strongest evidence for an association between ENSO and disease is provided by time-series analysis with data series that include more than one event. Evidence for ENSO's effect on other mosquito-borne and rodent-borne diseases is weaker than that for malaria and cholera. Health planners are used to dealing with spatial risk concepts but have little experience with temporal risk management. ENSO and seasonal climate forecasts might offer the opportunity to target scarce resources for epidemic control and disaster preparedness.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1481-1489
Number of pages	9
Journal	The Lancet
Volume	362
Issue number	9394
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14695-8
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2003
Externally published	Yes

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10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14695-8

Cite this

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title = "El Ni{\~n}o and health",

abstract = "El Ni{\~n}o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate event that originates in the Pacific Ocean but has wide-ranging consequences for weather around the world, and is especially associated with droughts and floods. The irregular occurrence of El Ni{\~n}o and La Ni{\~n}a events has implications for public health. On a global scale, the human effect of natural disasters increases during El Ni{\~n}o. The effect of ENSO on cholera risk in Bangladesh, and malaria epidemics in parts of South Asia and South America has been well established. The strongest evidence for an association between ENSO and disease is provided by time-series analysis with data series that include more than one event. Evidence for ENSO's effect on other mosquito-borne and rodent-borne diseases is weaker than that for malaria and cholera. Health planners are used to dealing with spatial risk concepts but have little experience with temporal risk management. ENSO and seasonal climate forecasts might offer the opportunity to target scarce resources for epidemic control and disaster preparedness.",

author = "Kovats, \{R. Sari\} and Bouma, \{Menno J.\} and Shakoor Hajat and Eve Worrall and Andy Haines",

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T1 - El Niño and health

AU - Kovats, R. Sari

AU - Bouma, Menno J.

AU - Hajat, Shakoor

AU - Worrall, Eve

AU - Haines, Andy

PY - 2003/11/1

Y1 - 2003/11/1

N2 - El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate event that originates in the Pacific Ocean but has wide-ranging consequences for weather around the world, and is especially associated with droughts and floods. The irregular occurrence of El Niño and La Niña events has implications for public health. On a global scale, the human effect of natural disasters increases during El Niño. The effect of ENSO on cholera risk in Bangladesh, and malaria epidemics in parts of South Asia and South America has been well established. The strongest evidence for an association between ENSO and disease is provided by time-series analysis with data series that include more than one event. Evidence for ENSO's effect on other mosquito-borne and rodent-borne diseases is weaker than that for malaria and cholera. Health planners are used to dealing with spatial risk concepts but have little experience with temporal risk management. ENSO and seasonal climate forecasts might offer the opportunity to target scarce resources for epidemic control and disaster preparedness.

AB - El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate event that originates in the Pacific Ocean but has wide-ranging consequences for weather around the world, and is especially associated with droughts and floods. The irregular occurrence of El Niño and La Niña events has implications for public health. On a global scale, the human effect of natural disasters increases during El Niño. The effect of ENSO on cholera risk in Bangladesh, and malaria epidemics in parts of South Asia and South America has been well established. The strongest evidence for an association between ENSO and disease is provided by time-series analysis with data series that include more than one event. Evidence for ENSO's effect on other mosquito-borne and rodent-borne diseases is weaker than that for malaria and cholera. Health planners are used to dealing with spatial risk concepts but have little experience with temporal risk management. ENSO and seasonal climate forecasts might offer the opportunity to target scarce resources for epidemic control and disaster preparedness.

U2 - 10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14695-8

DO - 10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14695-8

M3 - Review article

SN - 0140-6736

VL - 362

SP - 1481

EP - 1489

JO - The Lancet

JF - The Lancet

IS - 9394

ER -

El Niño and health

Abstract

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