Assessment of a Vulnerable Rural Community to Typhoid Fever using Geospatial-Temporal Analysis: Case Study of Ejule, Kogi State of Nigeria

Abstract

The rural community of Ejule in Kogi state has suffered for decades to access quality water. Therefore, the high prevalence cases of typhoid fever are largely due to unavailability of safe and clean water in the study area. This study adopts spatial-temporal techniques and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze the data collected and investigates the spatial variation of typhoid fever in the study area. The results showed that the total reported cases of typhoid fever for a lag period of three years are 12,733, of which the year 2011 recorded 3986 (31.30%), 2012 record 4233 (33.24%) and 2013 also record 4514 (35.45%). This implies that a total of 77.17% of the entire population of the study area were affected in the preceding year of 2011, 2012 and 2013. The results also identify that the high cases of typhoid fever recorded in the dry/cool season is as a result of supply of untreated contaminated stream/river water and the decrease in rainfall amounts, while lower transmission is recorded in the wet/rainy season when partial clean rain water were highly available. The study further indicates that a total of 97,060,000 litres of contaminated river water was supplied to 13,481 people, which are 81.70% of the entire population in the study area. The results of the classification of Land-use (LU) and Land-cover (LC) from satellite imagery confirmed that the study area is without water body. However, the availability of contaminated and polluted river/stream water positively correlates to typhoid fever of which the determination coefficient are 81.03% with high level of confidence and strong strength in their relationship. In the final analysis the spatial spread of contaminated water increase the vulnerability of typhoid fever and health risk to the community, particularly people in the area. It is evident that the only source of water to the community is from river Umomi and Ochadamu, these water points are highly susceptible to contamination, thus the high concentration of water borne diseases (typhoid fever) in the area. The study recommends improved environmental sanitation and enhanced water management strategies.

Keywords: assessment, vulnerable, ejule rural community, typhoid fever, geospatial, temporal, contamination