Descriptive epidemiology of typhoid fever during an epidemic in Harare, Zimbabwe, 2012.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Typhoid fever remains a significant public health problem in developing countries. In October 2011, a typhoid fever epidemic was declared in Harare, Zimbabwe - the fourth enteric infection epidemic since 2008. To orient control activities, we described the epidemiology and spatiotemporal clustering of the epidemic in Dzivaresekwa and Kuwadzana, the two most affected suburbs of Harare.

Methods

A typhoid fever case-patient register was analysed to describe the epidemic. To explore clustering, we constructed a dataset comprising GPS coordinates of case-patient residences and randomly sampled residential locations (spatial controls). The scale and significance of clustering was explored with Ripley K functions. Cluster locations were determined by a random labelling t

SUBMITTER: Polonsky JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4259398 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature