NEW YORK, Feb 07 (Reuters Health) -- During the 1997 to 1998 El Nino
weather phenomenon, hospital admissions for children with diarrhea soared in
Lima, Peru, according to a report in the February 5th issue of The Lancet.
El Nino is an unusual warming of the Pacific Ocean close to the equator.
The phenomenon occurs every 2 to 7 years, and can cause weather changes, such as
increased temperatures and decreases in rainfall and relative humidity. It has
previously been linked to outbreaks of less common infectious diseases such as
dengue fever, malaria and cholera.
But weather changes that increase diarrhea rates need to be noted, because
diarrhea "causes 1 billion disease episodes and 3 million deaths annually in
children under 5 years old worldwide," the researchers report.
Now that El Nino-related temperature variations can be predicted several
months in advance, "the planning of public health interventions ahead of time
can help protect many lives and may also help prevent many episodes of diarrheal
disease in children," William Checkley, a student at The Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, told Reuters Health.
Checkley and a team of multinational investigators examined the effects of
El Nino on hospital admissions for diarrhea in Peruvian children from early 1997
through August 1998. During that period, the mean ambient temperature in Lima
rose by 5 degrees Celsius above normal, they found.
More than 57,000 children were admitted to the oral rehydration unit of
the Instituto National de Salud del Nino in Lima between 1993 and 1998. Oral
rehydration is fluid and electrolyte therapy used to replace fluids and salts
lost during bouts of diarrhea.
The researchers determined that during the period before El Nino,
admissions increased an average of 8% for every 1 degree Celsius increase in
temperature. During El Nino, the daily number of admissions increased 200% per 5
degree Celsius increase in temperature.
Checkley and his colleagues calculated that 6,225 cases of diarrhea in
children were attributable to the weather phenomenon and resulted in US$277,000
in healthcare costs. The effects of El Nino on hospital admissions for diarrhea
in children appeared to be greatest during the winter months, according to the
report.
"If our findings are reproducible in other geographical regions, diarrhoea
may increase by millions of cases worldwide per degree of increase in ambient
temperature above normal," Checkley and his colleagues write.
During the interview with Reuters Health, Checkley recommended several
specific interventions, including "alerting health workers, aggressive
media-based campaigns to promote oral rehydration and chlorination of water" to
reduce the risk of waterborne diseases.
