Climate Exchange

[

] 116

Climate information in

support of the health sector

Nirivololona Raholijao, Madagascar Directorate General of Meteorology,

Alain Rakotoarisoa, Madagascar Directorate of Public Health and Epidemiological Surveillance/MSANP

and Haleh Kootval, World Meteorological Organization

adagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean with 19.6

million inhabitants and an area of 587,000 km

Classified as a low-income country with an economy

based primarily on agriculture, Madagascar has a poverty ratio

estimated at 66.4 per cent, with disparities between urban and

rural areas.

Situated between latitudes 12° and 25° S, Madagascar has an essen-

tially tropical climate with two distinct seasons: the winter dry

season from May to October and the summer rainy season from

October to April. During the tropical cyclone season from November

to April, several tropical disturbances usually cause severe damage.

Rainfall and temperatures differ widely across the island due to vari-

ations in altitude.

Impact of climate-sensitive diseases on public health

Communicable diseases are a burden for public health in

Madagascar. Many vector-borne diseases, zoonoses (transmitted

from animals to humans) and waterborne diseases

are dependent on climatic factors. Climate-sensitive

diseases are responsible for 39.1 per cent of the causes

of morbidity registered at health centres in Madagascar

and contribute to 57 per cent of the alerts received by

the Direction de la Veille Sanitaire et de la Surveillance

Epidémiologique in Madagascar. This does not include

alerts that go directly to individual health programmes

fighting diseases such as malaria and plague. In 2011,

the plague fatality rate was 18.30 per cent, while

malaria mortality rates in 2010 were 8.63 per cent for

children under five years old and 2.84 per cent for

those over five.

Climate services for the health sector

The National Meteorological and Hydrometeorological

Service (NMHS) in Madagascar started providing

climate information and data to the health sector

ealth

People waiting for the physician at the Centre de Santé de Base Niveau II (CSBII) of Ambositra, a health sentinel site

Image: Madagascar Met Services