| Abstract | We studied the relationship between a neglected tropical disease called Buruli Ulcer (BU) and landscape disturbance. We hypothesized that the increased presence of BU was related to the increase in deforestation and mining, especially alluvial mining, in endemic areas of the disease. We used satellite imagery at several resolutions to characterize land cover between areas with and without the disease. Our results showed that areas with the disease had higher amounts of alluvial mining and agriculture, and lower amounts of urban area. We also determined that older people had higher prevalence of the disease than children. While it is unclear how people come in contact with the bacteria, our paper shows that the importance of where people live (specifically, what land activities are occurring in the area) seems to play a large role in determining disease risk.
Data set #1
Ghana Buruli Ulcer Cases 2007-2010: Includes village #, village location (lat/long), village population, and number of hospital-confirmed Buruli Ulcer cases per village.
Data set #2
Ghana Village Landcover: This dataset includes the percent of six alternative land covers (unclassified, urban, water, grassland, forest, agriculture) surrounding 154 villages in southwestern Ghana. Land classifications were derived from Landsat and Rapid Eye satellite imagery and were calculated at several radial distances from the village center (1 km, 2.5 km, 5 km, 10 km, 20 km, 30 km, 40 km). Village ID number and location (lat/long) is also included. |
