Weather Elements Impacts on Malaria Surveillance in the Coastal Blocks of Ramanathapuram District, Tamilnadu, India

Mosquito-borne diseases particularly malaria is becoming most dreaded health problems in the Coastal Blocks of Ramanathapuram District, Tamilnadu, India. In Coastal Blocks of Ramanathapuram District, malaria is seasonal and unstable, causing frequent epidemics. For transmission of malaria parasite, climatic factors are important determinants such as rain fall, temperature relative humidity and wind that can negate climatic influences. It is aimed to find out the effect of climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and wind on malaria incidence with particular emphasis to capture the essential events. Cartographic technique and simple correlation analysis were carried out by using Geographical Information System (GIS) and SPSS. A set of transmission windows typical to India have been developed, in terms of different temperature ranges for a particular range of relative humidity, by analysing the present climate trends and corresponding malaria incidences. El Nino years were used to find out the relationship between the climatic variables and the incidence of malaria. Occurrence of El Nino may be a alarm for taking precautions. The climatic variables such as temperature, rain fall, humidity and wind speed correlate with incidence of malaria in the Coastal Blocks of Ramanathapuram District. Climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and wind are playing major role on outbreak of malaria especially in the costal block of Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. More rainfall and El Nino years are becoming a alarm for precautions practice for the administrators. So this research may help administrators to take necessary action to control the malaria incidence.