Infectious Diseases and Tropical Cyclones in Southeast China

Jietao Zheng, Weixiao Han, Baofa Jiang, Wei Ma and Ying Zhang
Additional contact information
Jietao Zheng: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Weixiao Han: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Baofa Jiang: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Wei Ma: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Ying Zhang: Climate Change and Health Center, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: Southeast China is frequently hit by tropical cyclones (TCs) with significant economic and health burdens each year. However, there is a lack of understanding of what infectious diseases could be affected by tropical cyclones. This study aimed to examine the impacts of tropical cyclones on notifiable infectious diseases in southeast China. Disease data between 2005 and 2011 from four coastal provinces in southeast China, including Guangdong, Hainan, Zhejiang, and Fujian province, were collected. Numbers of cases of 14 infectious diseases were compared between risk periods and reference periods for each tropical cyclone. Risk ratios (RR s ) were calculated to estimate the risks. TCs were more likely to increase the risk of bacillary dysentery, paratyphoid fever, dengue fever and acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis ( ps < 0.05) than to decrease the risk, more likely to decrease the risk of measles, mumps, varicella and vivax malaria ( ps < 0.05) than to increase the risk. In conclusion, TCs have mixed effects on the risk of infectious diseases. TCs are more likely to increase the risk of intestinal and contact transmitted infectious diseases than to decrease the risk, and more likely to decrease the risk of respiratory infectious diseases than to increase the risk. Findings of this study would assist in developing public health strategies and interventions for the reduction of the adverse health impacts from tropical cyclones.

Keywords: tropical cyclone; infectious diseases; impact; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/5/494/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/5/494/ (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:14:y:2017:i:5:p:494-:d:97859

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 ().