Housing equity for health equity: a rights-based approach to the control of Lassa fever in post-war Sierra Leone

BMC International Health and Human Rights

Daniel G Bausch⁶  Lina M Moses³  Brian A Temple²  Rachel A Ross⁴  M Bailor Barrie⁵  J Daniel Kelly¹ 

[1] Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA;Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA;Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue SL-17, New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA;Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA;College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, Freetown, Sierra Leone;Doctors for Global Health, Atlanta, GA, USA

关键词: Global health;    Public health;    Health equity;    Housing equity;    Mastomys natalensis;    Arenavirus;    Lassa fever;   

Others  :  855372
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-698X-13-2

 received in 2012-08-21, accepted in 2012-12-27,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Poor quality housing is an infringement on the rights of all humans to a standard of living adequate for health. Among the many vulnerabilities of those without adequate shelter is the risk of disease spread by rodents and other pests. One such disease is Lassa fever, an acute and sometimes severe viral hemorrhagic illness endemic in West Africa. Lassa virus is maintained in the rodent Mastomys natalensis, commonly known as the “multimammate rat,” which frequently invades the domestic environment, putting humans at risk of Lassa fever. The highest reported incidence of Lassa fever in the world is consistently in the Kenema District of Sierra Leone, a region that was at the center of Sierra Leone’s civil war in which tens of thousands of lives were lost and hundreds of thousands of dwellings destroyed. Despite the end of the war in 2002, most of Kenema’s population still lives in inadequate housing that puts them at risk of rodent invasion and Lassa fever. Furthermore, despite years of health education and village hygiene campaigns, the incidence of Lassa fever in Kenema District appears to be increasing. We focus on Lassa fever as a matter of human rights, proposing a strategy to improve housing quality, and discuss how housing equity has the potential to improve health equity and ultimately economic productivity in Sierra Leone. The manuscript is designed to spur discussion and action towards provision of housing and prevention of disease in one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Kelly et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Enria DA, Mills JN, Bausch D, Shieh W, Peters CJ: Arenavirus Infections. In Tropical Infectious Diseases: Principles, Pathogens, and Practice. 3rd edition. Edited by Guerrant RL, Walker DH, Weller PF. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone; 2011:449-461.
• [2]McCormick JB, Webb PA, Krebs JW, Johnson KM, Smith ES: A prospective study of the epidemiology and ecology of Lassa fever. J Infect Dis 1987, 155(3):437-444.
• [3]Richmond JK, Baglole DJ: Lassa fever: epidemiology, clinical features, and social consequences. BMJ 2003, 327(7426):1271-1275.
• [4]Fichet-Calvet E, Rogers DJ: Risk maps of Lassa fever in West Africa. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2009, 3(3):e388.
• [5]Ehichioya DU, Hass M, Olschlager S, Becker-Ziaja B, Onyebuchi Chukwu CO, Coker J, Nasidi A, Ogugua OO, Gunther S, Omilabu SA: Lassa fever, Nigeria, 2005–2008. Emerg Infect Dis 2010, 16(6):1040-1041.
• [6]Monath TP, Newhouse VF, Kemp GE, Setzer HW, Cacciapuoti A: Lassa virus isolation from Mastomys natalensis rodents during an epidemic in Sierra Leone. Science 1974, 185(147):263-265.
• [7]Katakweba AAS, Mulungu LS, Eiseb SJ, Mahlaba TA, Makundi RH, Massawe AW, Borremans B, Belmain SR: Prevalence of haemoparasites, leptospires and coccobacilli with potential for human infection in the blood of rodents and shrews from selected localities in Tanzania, Namibia and Swaziland. BioOne 2012, 47(1):119-127.
• [8]Mgode GF, Mhamphi G, Katakweba A, Paemelaere E, Willekens N, Leirs H, Machang’u RS, Hartskeerl RA: PCR detection of Leptospira DNA in rodents and insectivores from Tanzania. Belg J Zool 2005, 135(suppl):17-19.
• [9]Green CA, Gordon DH, Lyons NF: Biological species in Praomys (Mastomys) natalensis (Smith), a rodent carrier of Lassa virus and bubonic plague in Africa. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1978, 27(3):627-629.
• [10]Githure JI, Schnur LF, Le Blancq SM, Hendricks LD: Characterization of Kenyan Leishmania spp. and identification of Mastomys natalensis, Taterillus emini and Aethomys kaiseri as new hosts of Leishmania major. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 1986, 80(5):501-507.
• [11]Ikeh EI, Ajayi JA, Nwana EJ: Mastomys natalensis and Tatera gambiana as probable reservoirs of human cutaneous leishmaniasis in Nigeria. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1995, 89(1):25-26.
• [12]Keenlyside RA, McCormick JB, Webb PA, Smith E, Elliott L, Johnson KM: Case–control study of Mastomys natalensis and humans in Lassa virus-infected households in Sierra Leone. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1983, 32(4):829-837.
• [13]Demby AH, Inapogui A, Kargbo K, Koninga J, Kourouma K, Kanu J, Coulibaly M, Wagoner KD, Ksiazek TG, Peters CJ, et al.: Lassa fever in Guinea: II. Distribution and prevalence of Lassa virus infection in small mammals. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 2001, 1(4):283-297.
• [14]Safronetz D, Lopez JE, Sogoba N, Traore SF, Raffel SJ, Fischer ER, Ebihara H, Branco L, Garry RF, Schwan TG, et al.: Detection of Lassa virus, Mali. Emerg Infect Dis 2010, 16(7):1123-1126.
• [15]Lecompte E, Fichet-Calvet E, Daffis S, Koulemou K, Sylla O, Kourouma F, Dore A, Soropogui B, Aniskin V, Allali B, et al.: Mastomys natalensis and Lassa fever, West Africa. Emerg Infect Dis 2006, 12(12):1971-1974.
• [16]Ter Meulen J, Lukashevich I, Sidibe K, Inapogui A, Marx M, Dorlemann A, Yansane ML, Koulemou K, Chang-Claude J, Schmitz H: Hunting of peridomestic rodents and consumption of their meat as possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus in the Republic of Guinea. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1996, 55(6):661-666.
• [17]Fraser DW, Campbell CC, Monath TP, Goff PA, Gregg MB: Lassa fever in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, 1970–1972. I. Epidemiologic studies. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1974, 23(6):1131-1139.
• [18]McCormick JB, King IJ, Webb PA, Johnson KM, O'Sullivan R, Smith ES, Trippel S, Tong TC: A case–control study of the clinical diagnosis and course of Lassa fever. J Infect Dis 1987, 155(3):445-455.
• [19]United Nations Development Programme: Sierra Leone Human Development Report: Empowering Local Government for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction. 2007.
• [20]Winnebah T, Brewah F, Francis T: 2004 Population and Housing Census: Analytical Report on Poverty. Republic of Sierra Leone. Republic of Sierra Leone 2006, 2006:1-55.
• [21]Bonner PC, Schmidt WP, Belmain SR, Oshin B, Baglole D, Borchert M: Poor housing quality increases risk of rodent infestation and Lassa fever in refugee camps of Sierra Leone. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2007, 77(1):169-175.
• [22]Moses L, Kargbo K, Koninga J, Robert W, Lungay V, Fonnie R, Kanneh L, Bangura J, Garry R, Bausch D: Household predictors of abundance of the Lassa virus reservoir, Mastomys natalensis, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Abstract, 58th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Washington, DC; 2009.
• [23]Khan S, Goba A, Chu M, Roth C, Healing T, Marx A, Fair J, Guttieri M, Ferro P, Imes T, et al.: New opportunities for field research on the pathogenesis and treatment of Lassa fever. Antiviral Res 2008, 78(1):103-115.
• [24]Lassa Fever-Sierra Leone (03): (Northern). Promed-mail: 20101017.3770, Oct. 17, 2010. Available at: http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20101017.3770 webcite
• [25]Doherty J: Housing and development in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Cities 1985, 2(2):149-164.
• [26]National Housing Policy and Development Programme–Sierra Leone. Republic of Sierra Leone, 2006.. http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=4609&catid=232&typeid=13&subMenuId=0 webcite
• [27]Renner-Thomas A: Land tenure in Sierra Leone: the law, dualism, and the making of a land policy. Central Milton Keynes: AuthorHouse UK Ltd.; 2010.
• [28]Renner-Thomas A: In Sierra Leone, NASSIT Solves Sierra Leone's Housing Crises.. Awareness Times; 2010. Available at: http://news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=6&num=15969&printer=1 webcite
• [29]Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Principles. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/ipm.htm webcite
• [30]A Cash Transfer Program Reduces HIV Infections among Adolescent Girls. Malawi and Tanzania Research Shows Promise in Preventing HIV and Sexually-Transmitted Infections. Development Research Group of the World Bank; July 18, 2010. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/EXTAFRHEANUTPOP/EXTAFRREGTOPHIVAIDS/0,,contentMDK:22649337~menuPK:717155~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:717148,00.html webcite
• [31]Jewkes R, Nduna M, Levin J, Jama N, Dunkle K, Khuzwayo N, Koss M, Puren A, Wood K, Duvvury N: A cluster randomized-controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of Stepping Stones in preventing HIV infections and promoting safer sexual behaviour amongst youth in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa: trial design, methods and baseline findings. Trop Med Int Health 2006, 11(1):3-16.
• [32]Donnelly J: How did Sierra Leone provide free health care? Lancet 2011, 377(9775):1393-1396.