The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trachoma is the most common cause of infectious blindness. Hot, dry climates, dust and water scarcity are thought to be associated with the distribution of trachoma but the evidence is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological evidence regarding th...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:56a5c4b5c60f4d248246293c92084b69 2023-05-15T15:14:39+02:00 The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. Anita Ramesh Sari Kovats Dominic Haslam Elena Schmidt Clare E Gilbert 2013-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 https://doaj.org/article/56a5c4b5c60f4d248246293c92084b69 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3820701?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 https://doaj.org/article/56a5c4b5c60f4d248246293c92084b69 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 11, p e2513 (2013) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 2023-01-08T01:24:30Z BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trachoma is the most common cause of infectious blindness. Hot, dry climates, dust and water scarcity are thought to be associated with the distribution of trachoma but the evidence is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological evidence regarding the extent to which climatic factors explain the current prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. Understanding the present relationship between climate and trachoma could help inform current and future disease elimination. METHODS: A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted to identify observational studies which quantified an association between climate factors and acute or chronic trachoma and which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies that assessed the association between climate types and trachoma prevalence were also reviewed. RESULTS: Only eight of the 1751 papers retrieved met the inclusion criteria, all undertaken in Africa. Several papers reported an association between trachoma prevalence and altitude in highly endemic areas, providing some evidence of a role for temperature in the transmission of acute disease. A robust mapping study found strong evidence of an association between low rainfall and active trachoma. There is also consistent but weak evidence that the prevalence of trachoma is higher in savannah-type ecological zones. There were no studies on the effect of climate in low endemic areas, nor on the effect of dust on trachoma. CONCLUSION: Current evidence on the potential role of climate on trachoma distribution is limited, despite a wealth of anecdotal evidence. Temperature and rainfall appear to play a role in the transmission of acute trachoma, possibly mediated through reduced activity of flies at lower temperatures. Further research is needed on climate and other environmental and behavioural factors, particularly in arid and savannah areas. Many studies did not adequately control for socioeconomic or environmental confounders. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 7 11 e2513 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Anita Ramesh Sari Kovats Dominic Haslam Elena Schmidt Clare E Gilbert The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trachoma is the most common cause of infectious blindness. Hot, dry climates, dust and water scarcity are thought to be associated with the distribution of trachoma but the evidence is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological evidence regarding the extent to which climatic factors explain the current prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. Understanding the present relationship between climate and trachoma could help inform current and future disease elimination. METHODS: A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted to identify observational studies which quantified an association between climate factors and acute or chronic trachoma and which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies that assessed the association between climate types and trachoma prevalence were also reviewed. RESULTS: Only eight of the 1751 papers retrieved met the inclusion criteria, all undertaken in Africa. Several papers reported an association between trachoma prevalence and altitude in highly endemic areas, providing some evidence of a role for temperature in the transmission of acute disease. A robust mapping study found strong evidence of an association between low rainfall and active trachoma. There is also consistent but weak evidence that the prevalence of trachoma is higher in savannah-type ecological zones. There were no studies on the effect of climate in low endemic areas, nor on the effect of dust on trachoma. CONCLUSION: Current evidence on the potential role of climate on trachoma distribution is limited, despite a wealth of anecdotal evidence. Temperature and rainfall appear to play a role in the transmission of acute trachoma, possibly mediated through reduced activity of flies at lower temperatures. Further research is needed on climate and other environmental and behavioural factors, particularly in arid and savannah areas. Many studies did not adequately control for socioeconomic or environmental confounders. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anita Ramesh Sari Kovats Dominic Haslam Elena Schmidt Clare E Gilbert |
author_facet |
Anita Ramesh Sari Kovats Dominic Haslam Elena Schmidt Clare E Gilbert |
author_sort |
Anita Ramesh |
title |
The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
title_short |
The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
title_full |
The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
title_fullStr |
The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
title_sort |
impact of climatic risk factors on the prevalence, distribution, and severity of acute and chronic trachoma. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 https://doaj.org/article/56a5c4b5c60f4d248246293c92084b69 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 7, Iss 11, p e2513 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3820701?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 https://doaj.org/article/56a5c4b5c60f4d248246293c92084b69 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002513 |
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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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7 |
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11 |
container_start_page |
e2513 |
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