Disease Burden on a Riverine Population Dependent on a Peri-urban River: Insights from Hospitalization Data in Akonolinga, Cameroon

Anyizi Bertha Nkemnyi^1, , Lucy Mange Ndip^{2, 3}, Benedicta Oshuware Oben⁴, Oben Pius Mbu⁴, Tambekong Talkspeak Arrey⁴ and Mbeng Ashu Arrey⁴

¹Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea

²Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon

³Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea

⁴Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Science, University of Buea

Cite this paper

Anyizi Bertha Nkemnyi, Lucy Mange Ndip, Benedicta Oshuware Oben, Oben Pius Mbu, Tambekong Talkspeak Arrey and Mbeng Ashu Arrey. Disease Burden on a Riverine Population Dependent on a Peri-urban River: Insights from Hospitalization Data in Akonolinga, Cameroon. American Journal of Water Resources. 2023; 11(2):41-48. doi: 10.12691/AJWR-11-2-1

Abstract

Pristine or near-pristine freshwater rivers provide numerous ecosystem services to riverine communities. Yet they could be a significant public health threat due to contamination and pollution. This study assessed the disease burden among the population of Akonolinga, on the banks of River Nyong in Cameroon. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to ten medical facilities within the town. Hospitalization and laboratory diagnosis logs for the year 2020 were reviewed. Results showed that 44.4 ± 1.15% of the respondents had recurrent foodborne diseases between 1 to 10 times a year, and there was strong positive correlation between the rate of foodborne diseases and that of waterborne diseases (rho = 0.881, p = 0.002). Foodborne disease cases were highest during the dry season (66.67 ± 1.73%). Malaria was most prevalent (27.8%) but statistically similar to prevalence of typhoid (22.2%) and diarrhea (22.2%). Bacteria were the major causative agent of diseases, dominated by members of Salmonella (30.3%), Pseudomonas (21.2%) and Escherichia (21.2%). The prevalence of Salmonella was statistically higher than that of Trichomonas, Shigella, Amoeba and Staphylococcus. These results are suggestive of a contaminated environment, poor hygiene etc. which would necessitate behavioural change within the population for better management.

Keywords

disease burden, bacteria, food poisoning, waterborne diseases, riverine population

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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