Analysis of the relationships between climate/aerosols and meningitis epidemics in Western Africa

Suitability of OMI aerosol index to reflect mineral dust surface conditions: preliminary application for studying the link with meningitis epidemics in the Sahel.

12 pages; International audience; The aimof this study is to analyze the suitability of remotely-sensed aerosol retrievals to progress in the understanding of the influence of desert dust on health, and particularly on meningitis epidemics. In the Sahel, meningitis epidemics are a serious public health issue. Social factors are of prime importance in the dynamics of the epidemics, however climate and environmental factors are also suspected to play an important role. This study focuses on three Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso,Mali and Niger) which are among the most concerned in the "meningitis belt" and affected by strong dust events every year. It investigates the capability of the aeros…

Définition d’un événement de poussières désertiques au Sahel : apport de nouvelles mesures de PM10 au Burkina Faso.

This study isdedicated to the desert dust of the dry season in an inhabited Sahelian rural area whose populations are widely exposed tosanitary risks such as meningitis outbreaks (Martiny & Chiapello, 2013). Here, the objective is to give a definition of a dust“event”, a concept describing the dustiest moments in a dusty environment, but that remains rather unclear, notably becauseof the lack of ground-truth measurements. The analysis of new PM10 measurements in Burkina Faso has enabled us to definethe dust events as episodes which experience concentrations greater than 189μg/m3 for at least 10h. Five types of dust eventshave been defined depending on the concentrations measured. On the fir…

Advances in the analyses of dust/climate and meningitis relationships based on a multidisciplinary approach

International audience

Relationships between dust aerosols and meningitis epidemics using satellite data sets

About the potential role of desert dust in the West African meningitis epidemics

Assessments for the impact of mineral dust on the meningitis incidence in West Africa.

9 pages; International audience; Recently, mineral dust has been suspected to be one of the important environmental risk factor for meningitis epidemics in West Africa. The current study is one of the first which relies on long-term robust aerosol measurements in the Sahel region to investigate the possible impact of mineral dust on meningitis cases (incidence). Sunphotometer measurements, which allow to derive aerosol and humidity parameters, i.e., aerosol optical thickness, Angström coefficient, and precipitable water, are combined with quantitative epidemiological data in Niger and Mali over the 2004-2009 AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis) program period. We analyse how th…

The ADCEM project : Impacts of dust/climate on meningitis in the Sahel