1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background to the Study
Human health is affected by natural environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, wind direction and others. Weather isthe state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place while climate is the long-term manifestations of weather and other atmospheric conditions in a given area. Disease is an abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort or dysfunction (English 1.2.2 dictionary, 2011).Global warming which is defined by Oxford Dictionary of Science (2005) as an increase over time of the average air temperature of the earth.
Climate affects health in a number of ways;this was reported by Tong (2002) who performed an ecological time series analysis to examine the ecological association between climate variability and the transmission of Ross River Virus (RRV) diseases between 1985 and 1996 in Queensland. The result indicated that although many factors can affect the RRV transmission cycles, RRV is generally sensitive to climate variability and that rainfall, temperature and tidal level appeared to be important meteorological determinants in the transmission cycles of RRV diseases at macro level.
According to Thorpe, Frieden, Laserson, Wells and Khtri(2004);in the pre-antibiotic era, tuberculosis mortality rate was higher in the late winter and early spring than any other time of the year, it was suggested that environmental and social factors such as temperature, humidity, sunlight as well as crowding and person-to-person contacts are a source of tuberculosis seasonality particularly in the winter time. Continuous research into the influence of meteorological parameters on infectious diseases
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