Does Extremely Dry Weather Cause Ebola Outbreaks?

[Ptarmigan]

This articles suggests that dry weather after a rainy season is more likely to trigger Ebola outbreaks in Africa. No one knowns where Ebola hides in the wild, but bats are suspected to be the carriers. Ebola is one the deadliest diseases known with a mortality rate of 90%. It can kill within days after onset and characterized by bleeding and vomiting blood.

Trigger events: enviroclimatic coupling of Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreaks
http://www.ajtmh.org/content/71/5/664.long

This suggest that droughts are more conducive to epidemics of diseases. Some of the big flu pandemics occurred because of a drought including the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)–pandemic Influenza connection: Coincident or causal?
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/11/1107485109

[Ptarmigan]

Right now, Ebola rages in West Africa. Ebola could be linked to droughts in Africa.

Pattern of Human Ebola Outbreaks Linked to Wildlife and Climate
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/newsre ... sebola.asp

“If the spread of the Ebola virus follows its current northeastward path, the next outbreak would be expected to occur in northern Republic of the Congo towards Cameroon and the Central African Republic,” predicted Lahm.

However, according to the findings, the spread of Ebola also depends on climate factors. Illness and deaths among animals were most prevalent during periods of prolonged drought-like conditions in the rainforest, which indicates that severe environmental stress may facilitate disease transmission.

How the Ebola Outbreak Became Deadliest in History
http://www.livescience.com/47140-ebola- ... auses.html

An extremely dry season may have triggered the Ebola to break out.

The first case of Ebola was identified in Guinea in December 2013, at the beginning of the dry season. In other countries, too, outbreaks often begin during the transition from the rainy to dry seasons, when conditions become drier sharply, Bausch said. It is possible that drier conditions somehow influence the number or proportion of bats infected with the Ebola virus, or the frequency of human contact with them.

More in-depth analysis is needed to better understand the weather conditions this year in Guinea, but "inhabitants in the region do, indeed, anecdotally report an exceptionally arid and prolonged dry season," Bausch said. This may be due, in part, to the extreme deforestation in the area over recent decades, he said.

[Ptarmigan]

Weather does appear to be a factor with Ebola. Ebola epidemics have happened in both rainy and dry season. It possible that dry season maybe a stronger factor for Ebola to spread among animals and humans.

Association between temperature, humidity and ebolavirus disease
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArt ... leId=20892