Impact of climatic factors on acute bloody diarrhea, dengue and influenza-like illness incidences in the Philippines

The effect of climate variability on the weekly incidence of acute bloody diarrhea, dengue and influenza-like illness in the 17 regions of the Philippines is examined using correlation, mutual information and transfer entropy. Results show that the correlations between climate variables and disease incidences differ from one region to another. Interestingly, the diseases are directly correlated to each other for each region. This is explained by their common driving climate factors which are shown by large transfer entropy values. This work is important in further understanding the role of climate variability to the temporal dynamics of disease incidences.