Geographic patterns of malaria in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana

Knowledge of the geographical distribution of disease incidence is useful to assess the need for geographical variation in health resource location and planning. Many disease mapping methods have been developed, yet most of these methods are computationally intensive and the results are somewhat challenging for non-statisticians to understand. This study explores the simplicity of the application of the empirical Bayesian’s method in disease mapping. The methodology is illustrated by mapping the yearly geographical distribution of district level malaria incidences from 2008 to 2011 in the Brong/Ahafo region of Ghana. The results translate into a malaria distribution maps with persistent clustering of high incidence rates at the western parts whiles low rates has persisted at the eastern parts of the study area. These maps would be useful to inform on public health provision about the success or failure of interventions, and to make hypothesis or to provide evidences concerning disease etiology.