Climate Change and Cerebrospinal Meningitis in the Ghanaian Meningitis Belt

Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe and Vivian Adams Nabie
Additional contact information
Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe: Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 96, Legon, Ghana
Vivian Adams Nabie: Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 96, Legon, Ghana

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) is one of the infectious diseases likely to be affected by climate change. Although there are a few studies on the climate change-CSM nexus, none has considered perceptions of community members. However, understanding public perception in relation to a phenomenon is very significant for the design of effective communication and mitigation strategies as well as coping and adaptation strategies. This paper uses focus group discussions (FGDs) to fill this knowledge lacuna. Results show that although a few elderly participants ascribed fatal causes (disobedience to gods, ancestors, and evil spirits) to CSM infections during FGDs, majority of participants rightly linked CSM infections to dry, very hot and dusty conditions experienced during the dry season. Finally, community members use a suite of adaptation options to curb future CSM epidemics.

Keywords: climate change; cerebrospinal meningitis; adaptation; meningitis belt; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/7/6923/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/7/6923/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:7:p:6923-6939:d:37866

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().