title: Remarkable rates of lightning strike mortality in Malawi.
abstract: Livingstone's second mission site on the shore of Lake Malawi suffers very high rates of consequential lightning strikes. Comprehensive interviewing of victims and their relatives in seven Traditional Authorities in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi revealed that the annual rate of consequential strikes was 419/million, more than six times higher than that in other developing countries; the rate of deaths from lightning was 84/million/year, 5.4 times greater than the highest ever recorded. These remarkable figures reveal that lightning constitutes a significant stochastic source of mortality with potential life history consequences, but it should not deflect attention away from the more prominent causes of mortality in this rural area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America. mborgerhoffmulder@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Monique Borgerhoff
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Lameck
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Msalu
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Caro
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salerno
mesh_terms: D061006:Bays; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008030:Lightning; D015168:Lightning Injuries / Q000401:mortality*; D008295:Malawi / Q000453:epidemiology