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Spatial relationship between arsenic in drinking water and Mycobacterium ulcerans infection in the Amansie West district, Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

A. A. Duker ,
E. J. M. Carranza  and
M. Hale
A. A. Duker*
Affiliation:
International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, The Netherlands
E. J. M. Carranza
Affiliation:
International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, The Netherlands
M. Hale
Affiliation:
International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, The Netherlands
*
*E-mail: duker@itc.nl
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Abstract

This paper hypothesizes that arsenic in drinking water indirectly contributes to Buruli ulcer (BU), a skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU) infection. Samples of groundwater and surface water used as drinking water by the population in Ghana's Amansie West district (part of which has a high prevalence of BU), were collected near rural settlements and analysed for arsenic. Arsenic concentration levels per settlement were compared with BU prevalence. A positive exposure-response relationship was obtained between arsenic in surface water and BU (r2 = 0.82). However, there is no significant exposure-response relation between groundwater and BU.

Keywords

surface watergroundwaterarsenicMycobacterium ulceransBuruli ulcer
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 69 , Issue 5 , October 2005 , pp. 707 - 717
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2005

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