Citation

Mulder MB, Msalu L, Caro T, Salerno J. PLoS One 2012; 7(1): e29281.

Affiliation

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America. mborgerhoffmulder@ucdavis.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0029281

PMID

22253708

PMCID

PMC3253777

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.

Language: en