Disease

Measles - Madagascar - Update

In a follow-up on the measles outbreak on the island country of Madagascar, UNICEF reports from 3 September to 21 February, 76,871 people were infected by measles and 928 died, a majority of which were children.

Dengue Fever - Peru

The Regional Health Office–Geresa has reported 33 confirmed cases of dengue in several localities of Lambayeque this year.

El Niño caused global disease outbreaks

Between 2015 and 2016, the weather phenomenon known as El Niño inadvertently set off a chain of events that led to global disease outbreaks.

But during the 2015-2016 event, NASA’s researchers found that El Niño changed precipitation, land surface temperatures and vegetation, facilitating conditions for the transmission of diseases. The aftermath resulted in a surge of reported cases for plague and hantavirus in the US states of Colorado and New Mexico; cholera in Tanzania; and dengue fever in Brazil and south-east Asia, among others. These findings are the first to comprehensively show the public health impacts of a major climate event on a global scale.