Natural disasters, climate change, and the health of mobile populations

Abstract

One approach to understanding how humans and the environment interact to produce conditions of health and disease is that of the human ecology of disease (Meade &Earickson, 2005). Basic to this approach is an understanding of the ways in which behavior, culture, population, environment, and biology all interact in what Krieger (1994) has termed the "web of causation." For example, to understand why malaria occurs in a particular place at a particular time, one must not only understand the vector biology of the relevant anopheline species, but also understand the distribution of population, anopheline habitats, and human behaviors that bring people into contact with the vector. Moreover, one must understand the behaviors and their cultural underpinnings that underlie peoples' daily travel patterns, which dictate movement that make populations susceptible to anopheline feeding behavior. A specific example is that of the increase of schistosomiasis upriver from the Akosombo Dam (Volta River Dam) in Ghana following completion of the dam in the mid 1960s. The ecological and behavioral patterns were already appropriate for schistosomiasis transmission prior to the completion of the dam, so schistosomiasis was endemic in this area. After completion of the dam, and the ensuing creation of the largest human-made lake in the world, ecological and behavioral conditions were even more ideal for the transmission of schistosomiasis. The area bounding the lake increased tremendously, and more people, many of whom were displaced by the dam, had contact with Lake Akosombo, which was the most obvious source of water for drinking, bathing, laundering, fishing, and other activities. As a result, the prevalence of schistosomiasis increased, as did other diseases, such as onchocerciasis. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.