Assessing the impact of meteorological factors on malaria patients in demilitarized zones in Republic of Korea

Abstract

BackgroundThe trend of military patients becoming infected with vivax malaria reemerged in the Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1993. The common explanation has been that infective Anopheles mosquitoes from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have invaded Republic of Korea’s demilitarized zone (DMZ). The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between meteorological factors and the number of malaria patients in the military in this region.MethodsThe authors estimated the effects of meteorological factors on vivax malaria patients from the military based on the monthly number of malaria cases between 2006 and 2011. Temperature, precipitation, snow depth, wind velocity, relative humidity, duration of sunshine, and cloud cover were selected as the meteorological factors to be studied. A systematic pattern in the spatial distribution of malaria cases was assessed using the Moran’s Index. Granger causality tests and cross-correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the relationship between meteorological factors and malaria patients in the military.ResultsSpatial analysis revealed significant clusters of malaria patients in the military in Republic of Korea in 2011 (Moran’s I = 0.136, p-value = 0.026). In the six years investigated, the number of malaria patients in the military in Paju decreased, but the number of malaria patients in the military in Hwacheon and Chuncheon increased. Monthly average, maximum and minimum temperatures; wind velocity; and relative humidity were found to be predicting factors of malaria in patients in the military in Paju. In contrast, wind velocity alone was not able to predict malaria in Hwacheon and Chuncheon, however, precipitation and cloud cover were able to predict malaria in Hwacheon and Chuncheon.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that the number of malaria patients in the military is correlated with meteorological factors. The variation in occurrence of malaria cases was principally attributed to differences in meteorological factors by regions of Republic of Korea.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0111-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Application of Epidemiological Geographic Information System: An Open-Source Spatial Analysis Tool Based on the OMOP Common Data Model

“…As shown in Figure 4, the primary cluster of malaria was detected in the GADM level 3 administrative area of Paju-si (p < 0.001), and the secondary cluster was identified in the GADM level 3 administrative areas of Gimpo-si and Goyang-si (p < 0.001). We found that AEGIS was able to describe geographic distribution and identify the known primary cluster of malaria in case of Paju-si [35][36][37]. The main reason for this phenomenon is consistent with the opinion that the infective mosquitoes of North Korea flowed into South Korea through the western part of the military demarcation line [39,40].…”

“…The Korea Central Cancer Registry is a database that collects nationwide hospital-based cancer incidence data since 1980 and annually provides incidence, survival, and prevalence statistics [34]. To assess the credibility of the clustering findings generated from AEGIS, the geographical cluster of malaria in South Korea was compared with that of the previously published studies [35][36][37].…”

Research Trends in Agenda-setting for Climate Change Adaptation Policy in the Public Health Sector in Korea

“…In terms of the types of health outcomes other than death or cardio-cerebrovascular disease, the most frequently published (n=30) health outcome was infectious disease ( Figure 3). To be more specific, among studies focusing on vectorborne diseases, the association between ambient temperature and malaria was the most frequently studied [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Each study had a different range of lag effects.…”

Nonconventional opponents: a review of malaria and leishmaniasis among United States Armed Forces

“…This puts US troops at risk of exposure if military forces press north. Furthermore, malaria was eradicated in South Korea in the 1970s, but soldiers (and increasingly, civilians as well) have been diagnosed with P. vivax malaria in the North-South demilitarized zone (Lee et al., 2002; Im et al., 2018), including reports of natural hybridization between local mosquito species and changing meteorological factors, to further perpetuate current observation (Choochote et al., 2014; Phasomkusolsil et al., 2014; Chang et al., 2016; Hwang et al., 2016).…”