The Planeteer

Image 1: Dadaab Refugee Complex Source: UNHCR, 2018 Dadaab, located in Kenya, is the world’s largest refugee camp (UNHCR, 2018). It houses over 235,269 Somalian refugees in informal settlements often lined with white, UNHCR tents. During the early 90’s, the first wave of Somalian refugees fleeing civil war established the first portion of the camp. A second influx of refugees took place in 2011 when drought and famine afflicted the southern region of Somalia. Around November 2015, a worrying cholera outbreak spread throughout Kenya and eventually reached the frontlines of Dadaab (CNN, 2015). By December 2015, seven people had died and hundreds were in the hospital seeking treatment. By June of 2016, fourteen deaths and almost 1,800 cases of cholera had been reported by the UNHCR to the CDC (Golicha, Qabale, & et al., 2018). Unfortunately, the demographic most ravished by the outbreak were children ages two to four, with an incidence rate of 16.9:1000 whereas adults saw an ...

You may have heard of schistosomiasis, but what exactly is it? Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) endemic to Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America (Secor, William Evan, 2014). Second to malaria, it is the disease with the highest economic and livelihood impact (The Carter Center, 2018). To truly understand the linkage between the burden of disease from schistosoma flukes and water, a basic understanding of its life cycle is needed. Infection of the human occurs when a cercariae penetrates the skin (CDC). A cercariae can best be described as a swimming larval schistosoma released by snails in the water (Secor, W.E., 2014). Prior to cercariae release, the aquatic snails are infected by miracidia, which are the free swimming larvae hatched from eggs. The head of the cercariae burrows into the human body for the next four to six weeks, traveling through various organs and eventually ending up in the veins near the bladder or intestines. At the time the worms rea...

Image 1: Downtown Kampala Source: http://theconversation.com/why-kampala-holds-single-biggest-growth-opportuni ty-for-uganda-52230 In 2015, a typhoid outbreak broke loose in the city of Kampala, Uganda (Murphy, et al., 2017). The epicenter was Nakasero - downtown Kampala and the city’s most populated city district. The culprit was contaminated water. On February 6, a 42-year old man died of severe abdominal pain, jaundice, and a high fever. Initial testing of the ill man suggested typhoid and after a complete epidemiological survey in the epicenter of downtown Kampala, researchers were able to conclude that the mysterious disease was indeed serovar Typhi . Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and most often transmitted by fecal matter. In most cases, contaminated water or food sources are the most common pathways of transmission. In the environmental survey conducted in Kampala following the outbreak, researchers gathered t...

Have you ever wondered what water truly means to you? Thought about what it would mean if you didn't have access to water on a daily basis? How about clean drinking water? As a Californian   I’ve grown up in sunny California my whole life and as much as I love my so-called “golden” state, we’ve definitely had our fair share of water resource management problems. Water use and access in California are often subjects of great controversy and beget bitter sentiments from democrats, republicans, farmers, students, mothers, fathers, and the list goes on and on. As a Brit, you’ve probably seen the agricultural sector of California’s central and inland valley marred by water conservation efforts due to drought remediation interventions. Every time I drive on the Interstate-5 towards San Francisco, I see “Solve the Water Crisis” or “Is Growing Food Wasting Water” billboards littering the side of the highway. Even my family has suffered the costs of California’s water crisis. Ou...