Climatic and Pathological Rhythms in a Humid Tropical Area, the Case of The Philippines

Abstract

The fact that weather significantly affects yearly, monthly and daily morbidity in human populations has been documented for a long time by a number of individuals. They have illustrated very well some of the basic structure and underlying mechanisms of seasonality in morbidity. But until now almost all these efforts were carried out in countries with temperate mid-latitude climates. Furthermore, meteoropathological investigations have for the most part concentrated upon mortality statistics for the usual reasons of data availability and comparability. However, an important question that arises when considering the effects of weather on diseases is how the relationship varies under different climatic regimes. On the other hand, the highest number of deaths for a given disease does not always coincide with the highest number of cases. Thus, the present investigation asks whether or not a warm and humid low latitude climate does in fact influence health. Notifiable disease cases in the Philippines as a whole have been analyzed over a six-year period ending in 1986, and especially for the years 1985 and 1986, to detect and characterize some rhythms of risk in various illnesses. Insofar as a seasonal pattern is clearly established, and as weather seems a main determinant of morbidity, such documentation could lead to a better understanding of disease patterns in the population and could identify more effective public health intervention strategies.