BMC Public Health, 12:442, Published 18 June 2012

Miguel A Luque Fernandez, Michael Schomaker, Peter R Mason, Jean F Fesselet, Yves Baudot, Andrew Boulle, and Peter Maes

“Background: In highly populated African urban areas where access to clean water is a challenge, water source contamination is one of the most cited risk factors in a cholera epidemic. During the rainy season, where there is either no sewage disposal or working sewer system, runoff of rains follows the slopes and gets into the lower parts of towns where shallow wells could easily become contaminated by excretes. In cholera endemic areas, spatial information about topographical elevation could help to guide preventive interventions. This study aims to analyze the association between topographic elevation and the distribution of cholera cases in Harare during the cholera epidemic in 2008 and 2009.

“Methods: We developed an ecological study using secondary data. First, we described attack…