Social and cultural features of cholera and shigellosis in peri-urban and rural communities of Zanzibar

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 1 Overview of study sites

	Peri-urban site	Rural site
Administrative structure
Community (Shehia)	Chumbuni	Mwambe
District	Urban^a	Mkoani
Island	Unguja	Pemba
Population estimates
Number of inhabitants^b	10,869	8,164
Population density	15,300/km²	800/km²
Characteristics
Environment	Unplanned, slum-like extension of the capital, situated along a main road, narrow alleys, sandy ground, few trees and shrubs, few plots for farming	Coastline community with widely scattered hamlets, lush green vegetation, livestock, cassava, banana, paddy rice and coconuts
Main housing structure	Brick houses, corrugated iron roofs	Mud houses, thatched roofs
Access to ^c (%)
Electricity	34	6.2
Private or community piped water	84	59
Public wells	8.1	39
Latrines	70	32
No access to toilet facilities	7.0	57
Economy ^c
Main economic activities	Informal business, government employees	Fishing, farming
Monthly median per capita expenditure	USD22.6	USD17.5
Annual incidence of cholera per 1,000 population ^d
Mean (standard deviation)	2.9 (1.7)	2.5 (6.0)
Median (range)	2.2 (1.3-5.7)	0 (0-14.8)
Annual incidence of shigellosis per 1,000 population ^e
Mean (standard deviation)	4.6 (1.6)	1.9 (0.3)
Median (range)	4.9 (2.9-6.1)	2.0 (1.7-2.2)

^a Despite belonging to the Urban district, this community is of peri-urban character; ^bCensus data from cholera control research project, 2008; ^c District-level data from Zanzibar Household Budget Survey, 2004/5 [16]; ^d Estimates (2002-2007) from Reyburn et al. (unpublished data) and WHO Cholera Country Profile for Zanzibar, 2006; ^e District-level estimates (2006-2008) from health facility-based surveillance [14, 36]

ISSN: 1471-2334