Cargando…

Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe

BACKGROUND: In most developing economies particularly in Africa, more people are likely to die of HIV/AIDS and malaria compared to other diseases. HIV/AIDS tends to be superimposed on the long standing malaria burden particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The detection and understanding of spatial over...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gwitira, Isaiah, Murwira, Amon, Mberikunashe, Joseph, Masocha, Mhosisi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6260695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30482166
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-018-3513-y
_version_ 1783374850595749888
author Gwitira, Isaiah
Murwira, Amon
Mberikunashe, Joseph
Masocha, Mhosisi
author_facet Gwitira, Isaiah
Murwira, Amon
Mberikunashe, Joseph
Masocha, Mhosisi
author_sort Gwitira, Isaiah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In most developing economies particularly in Africa, more people are likely to die of HIV/AIDS and malaria compared to other diseases. HIV/AIDS tends to be superimposed on the long standing malaria burden particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The detection and understanding of spatial overlaps in disease occurrence is important for integrated and targeted disease control. Integrated disease control can enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness through the development of drugs targeting multiple infections in the same geographic space. METHODS: Using Zimbabwe as a case study, this study tests the hypothesis that malaria clusters coincide with HIV/AIDS clusters in space. Case data for the two diseases were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Child Care in Zimbabwe at district level via the District Health Information System (DHIS). Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic was used to test for spatial overlaps in clusters of high cases of HIV/AIDS and malaria at district level. The spatial scan test was used to identify areas with higher cases of HIV/AIDS and malaria than would be expected under spatial randomness. RESULTS: Results of this study indicate that primary clusters of HIV/AIDS and malaria were not spatially coincident in Zimbabwe. While no spatial overlaps were detected between primary clusters of the two diseases, spatial overlaps were detected among statistically significant secondary clusters of HIV/AIDS and malaria. Spatial overlaps between HIV/AIDS and malaria occurred in five districts in the northern and eastern regions of Zimbabwe. In addition, findings of this study indicate that HIV/AIDS is more widespread in Zimbabwe compared to malaria. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study may therefore be used as a basis for spatially-targeted control of HIV/AIDS and malaria particularly in high disease burden areas. This is important as previous interventions have targeted the two diseases separately. Thus, targeted control could assist in resource allocation through prioritising areas in greatest need hence maximising the impact of disease control.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6260695
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-62606952018-11-30 Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe Gwitira, Isaiah Murwira, Amon Mberikunashe, Joseph Masocha, Mhosisi BMC Infect Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: In most developing economies particularly in Africa, more people are likely to die of HIV/AIDS and malaria compared to other diseases. HIV/AIDS tends to be superimposed on the long standing malaria burden particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The detection and understanding of spatial overlaps in disease occurrence is important for integrated and targeted disease control. Integrated disease control can enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness through the development of drugs targeting multiple infections in the same geographic space. METHODS: Using Zimbabwe as a case study, this study tests the hypothesis that malaria clusters coincide with HIV/AIDS clusters in space. Case data for the two diseases were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Child Care in Zimbabwe at district level via the District Health Information System (DHIS). Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic was used to test for spatial overlaps in clusters of high cases of HIV/AIDS and malaria at district level. The spatial scan test was used to identify areas with higher cases of HIV/AIDS and malaria than would be expected under spatial randomness. RESULTS: Results of this study indicate that primary clusters of HIV/AIDS and malaria were not spatially coincident in Zimbabwe. While no spatial overlaps were detected between primary clusters of the two diseases, spatial overlaps were detected among statistically significant secondary clusters of HIV/AIDS and malaria. Spatial overlaps between HIV/AIDS and malaria occurred in five districts in the northern and eastern regions of Zimbabwe. In addition, findings of this study indicate that HIV/AIDS is more widespread in Zimbabwe compared to malaria. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study may therefore be used as a basis for spatially-targeted control of HIV/AIDS and malaria particularly in high disease burden areas. This is important as previous interventions have targeted the two diseases separately. Thus, targeted control could assist in resource allocation through prioritising areas in greatest need hence maximising the impact of disease control. BioMed Central 2018-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6260695/ /pubmed/30482166 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-018-3513-y Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gwitira, Isaiah
Murwira, Amon
Mberikunashe, Joseph
Masocha, Mhosisi
Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title_full Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title_short Spatial overlaps in the distribution of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Zimbabwe
title_sort spatial overlaps in the distribution of hiv/aids and malaria in zimbabwe
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6260695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30482166
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-018-3513-y
work_keys_str_mv AT gwitiraisaiah spatialoverlapsinthedistributionofhivaidsandmalariainzimbabwe
AT murwiraamon spatialoverlapsinthedistributionofhivaidsandmalariainzimbabwe
AT mberikunashejoseph spatialoverlapsinthedistributionofhivaidsandmalariainzimbabwe
AT masochamhosisi spatialoverlapsinthedistributionofhivaidsandmalariainzimbabwe