Climate Change and Malaria in Jhapa District of Nepal: Emerging Evidences from Nepal

Climate change is an escalating issue of concern especially towards health. Malaria, as one of the major public health problems in Jhapa district of Nepal, is one of the sensitive diseases related to climate change. This study has been carried out to assess the relationship between climatic variables and malaria and to find out the range of non-climatic factors that can confound the relationship of climate change and human health. This was a retrospective study in which data of past 10 years relating to climate and disease (malaria) variables were analyzed. The occurrence of malaria in Jhapa was seen almost throughout the year with seasonal fluctuations. With mean annual temperature increase (0.04 degrees C/year), the increase in malaria cases in the district was observed with correlation of 0.284 (p <0.01) and 0.338 (p <0.001) with maximum and minimum temperature, respectively. Rainfall pattern was observed to be decreasing at an average rate of 7.1 mm/year but the malaria cases appeared mostly during the heavy rainfall season/period and had significant correlation between the two variables. On the contrary, Relative Humidity had no significant correlation with malaria occurrence. Climatic variables (except Relative Humidity) were found to be correlated with malaria occurrence but were not the significant predictors when time-series analysis was conducted.