Anomalously high dust content and the casual linkage to Meningitis during 2012 in Senegal

The Sahelian region Ethiopia to Senegal is known as the Meningitis belt, with epidemics occurring every 8-12 years. The winter and spring season of 2012 saw the return to widespread cases of Meningitis W-135 during March, April and May in Senegal. There were nearly 900 suspected cases of Meningitis in Senegal with suspected cases in nearly every region of the country. Dust loading as measured by MODIS and AERONET were also high during these months, with multiple episodes of significant dust events. In this presentation, we review the observations and also present Weather and Research Forecast Chemistry (WRF-CHEM) simulations during the winter and spring season for comparison.