The critical elements of weather such as rainfall, temperature and relative humidity
influence diseases. Although medical science has made remarkable progress in
fighting diseases through modern technology, the health of the human population is
still influenced to a great extent by weather and climate. This study helps in
determining the role weather elements play in diseases outbreak and transmission.
The objectives of the study are to identify weather induced common diseases in
Kafanchan, assess the nature of the relationship between common diseases and
weather elements responsible for them and to examine the seasonality of common
diseases in the study area. The methodology used in this research involve the
collection of monthly data of temperature (minimum and maximum), rainfall and
relative humidity for 10 years(1999 to 2008) in Kafanchan from the Water Board of
the same town. Medical records of the diseases: malaria, typhoid, meningitis, measles,
diarrhoea, cough, pneumonia and cholera were obtained from three hospitals using
purposive sampling method based on their spatial spread within the study area and the
duration of their existence, if up to 10 years and availability of records. These diseases
are among the common diseases in Kafanchan. Correlation and Regression analysis
statistic were used to assess relationship between weather elements (rainfall,
temperature and relative humidity) of Kafanchan and the occurrence of common
diseases. ANOVA was used to find out if there is significant different in the
seasonality of occurrences of the common diseases The Pearson Product Moment
Correlation Coefficient and stepwise and enter methods of Regression Analysis were
used. The descriptive statistics indicates that malaria and typhoid have the highest
number of frequency of occurrence in all the variables. Measles and meningitis rarely
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occur, but when they occur is usually during the hot period. The results of the
research indicated that Although various diseases are influenced by different weather
elements as shown by the stepwise regression analysis result, i.e. humidity has high
impact on Malaria, Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, temperature on Measles and
Meningitis, rainfall on Typhoid and Cholera. The collective or aggregate effect of all
the weather variables on the diseases was not ignored .The enter method of
regression, on the other hand, indicates that the aggregate weather elements (rainfall,
relative humidity and temperature) have a collective influence on Malaria, Typhoid,
Diarrhea and Meningitis, while Measles, Cholera, Pneumonia and Cough are not
significantly influenced by the aggregate weather elements. Cholera, Pneumonia, and
Cough shows no significant seasonal variability while Malaria, Measles, Typhoid,
Diarrhea and Meningitis shows significant seasonal variability in their occurrences.