Effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation and Dipole Mode Index on Chikungunya Infection in Indonesia

The aim of this study was to assess the possible association of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Dipole Mode Index (DMI) on chikungunya incidence overtime, including the significant reduction in cases that was observed in 2017 in Indonesia. Monthly nation-wide chikungunya case reports were obtained from the Indonesian National Disease Surveillance database, and incidence rates (IR) and case fatality rate (CFR) were calculated. Monthly data of Nino3.4 (indicator used to represent the ENSO) and DMI between 2011 and 2017 were also collected. Correlations between monthly IR and CFR and Nino3.4 and DMI were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation. We found that chikungunya case reports declined from 1972 cases in 2016 to 126 cases in 2017, a 92.6% reduction; the IR reduced from 0.67 to 0.05 cases per 100,000 population. No deaths associated with chikungunya have been recorded since its re-emergence in Indonesia in 2001. There was no significant correlation between monthly Nino3.4 and chikungunya incidence with r = −0.142 (95%CI: −0.320 – 0.046), p = 0.198. However, there was a significant negative correlation between monthly DMI and chikungunya incidence, r = −0.404 (95%CI: −0.229 – −0.554) with p < 0.001. In conclusion, our initial data suggests that the climate variable, DMI but not Nino3.4, is likely associated with changes in chikungunya incidence. Therefore, further analysis with a higher resolution of data, using the cross-wavelet coherence approach, may provide more robust evidence.