Our team received a seed grant from the Institute for Population Research (IPR) to study household water management practices in the urban setting of Maroua (Cameroon) and what their impact is on cholera outbreaks. The team consists of Jessica Healhy (Public Health), Jiyoung Lee (Environmental Health Sciences), Joe Tien (Mathematics), Ningchuan Xiao (Geography), Barbara Piperata (Anthropology), Rebecca Garabed (Preventive Veterinary Medicine), Laura Pomeroy (Preventive Veterinary Medicine), and myself. The picture shows Assïatou Bouba, Ibrahim Tchari, and Kellou Bichara, the Cameroonian research assistants of Jessica Healy who conducted the household surveys this summer.

 

The goal of the study is to examine why some Maroua neighborhoods have higher incidence rates of cholera than others and what the role of demographic, human health behavior, and environmental risk factors is. We will use an interdisciplinary approach, integrating spatial, ethnographic, epidemiological, and microbial analyses to better understand the ecology of infectious diseases in urban settings in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, we will focus on cholera, which is endemic in the Far North Province of Cameroon, but our study is designed such that we can use the same dataset – surveys of households and water management – in future studies of other diseases that spread through contaminated water, such as typhoid and hepatitis A. We are particularly interested in the research question whether cholera is endemic in Maroua due to environmental reservoirs or whether it is constantly reintroduced due to migratory movements of individuals traveling to and from the border regions of Nigeria. A greater understanding of the dynamics of the disease, will contribute to more effective control of cholera in the region.