Swine flu is grabbing headlines, but this isn’t the only public health issue concerning authorities. Cholera cases are increasing in Africa and researchers studying the increase say climate change is to blame.

According to a recent press release from AlphaGalileo, a resource for European research news, a study lead by researchers from the Madrid Carlos III Institute of Health shows cholera cases in Zambia are increasing as temperatures rise.

Their study results confirm that an increase in environmental temperature six weeks before the rainy season also increases the number of people affected by cholera at a rate of 4.9%.

“This is the first time that it has become evident in the sub-Saharan region that the increase in environmental temperature is related to the increase in cholera cases,” says Miguel Ángel Luque, one of the study’s authors, in the press release.

The research project, which was done in Zambia between 2003 and 2006, analyzes data from three cholera epidemics. The results show that climatic variables, such as rain and environmental temperature, are related to the increase in cholera cases during the epidemic period.

Experts affirm that cholera has a seasonal component associated with the rain season. An increase in temperature six weeks before this period is related with a 4.9% increase in the number of cases of this sickness within the population.

The study also showed that  a 1º C increase in temperature six weeks before the beginning of the outbreak explains the 5.2% increase in cholera cases during an epidemic.

¨The climate change is affecting the dynamic and resurgence of infectious sicknesses in a key fashion, concretely malaria and cholera,” says Luque.

The goal is to have a predictive method to be able to release an early alert in the region and put out a warning to health authorities.

The World Health Organization’s data indicates a concerning increase in the number of cholera cases worldwide since the beginning of the twentieth century. Today the cholera epidemic’s main focus is found in Zimbabwe.

Since the beginning of the outbreak in August of 2008 until March 17th of 2009, 91,164 cases were reported in this country alone, 4,037 of them fatal.

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