title: Climate variability and malaria epidemics in the highlands of East Africa.
abstract: Malaria epidemics in the highlands of East Africa garner significant research attention, due, in part, to their proposed sensitivity to climate change. In a recent article, Zhou et al. claim that increases in climate variance, rather than simple increases in climate mean values, have had an important role in the resurgence of malaria epidemics in the East African highlands since the early 1980s. If proven, this would be an interesting result but we believe that the methods used do not test the hypothesis suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK, OX1 3PS. simon.hay@zoo.ox.ac.uk <simon.hay@zoo.ox.ac.uk>
authors.forename: Simon I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Hay
authors.forename: G Dennis
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Shanks
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Snow
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Randolph
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000351:Africa, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology*