Dynamic mapping of cholera outbreak during the Yemeni Civil War, 2016–2019

• Published in: Journal of public health policy 2022-06, Vol.43 (2), p.185-202
• Main Authors: Simpson, Ryan B., Babool, Sofia, Tarnas, Maia C., Kaminski, Paulina M., Hartwick, Meghan A., Naumova, Elena N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cholera; Cholera - epidemiology; Civil war; Data collection; Datasets; Disaster relief; Disease Outbreaks; Emergencies; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Equality and Human Rights; Fatalities; Global health; Humanitarian aid; Humanitarianism; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Infrastructure; Mapping; Medical Sociology; Mortality; Nutrition; Original; Original Article; Outbreaks; Public Health; Risk analysis; Risk Factors; Sanitation; Social Justice; Social Policy; Social Sciences; Sociology; Time Factors; Time series; Visualization; War; Waterborne diseases; Yemen - epidemiology
• ISSN: 0197-5897; 1745-655X
• DOI: 10.1057/s41271-022-00345-x

Widespread destruction from the Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) triggered the world’s largest cholera outbreak. We compiled a comprehensive health dataset and created dynamic maps to demonstrate spatiotemporal changes in cholera infections and war conflicts. We aligned and merged daily, weekly, and monthly epidemiological bulletins of confirmed cholera infections and daily conflict events and fatality records to create a dataset of weekly time series for Yemen at the governorate level (subnational regions administered by governors) from 4 January 2016 through 29 December 2019. We demonstrated the use of dynamic mapping for tracing the onset and spread of infection and manmade factors that amplify the outbreak. We report curated data and visualization techniques to further uncover associations between infectious disease outbreaks and risk factors and to better coordinate humanitarian aid and relief efforts during complex emergencies.