Fig 1.
Study area encompassing the departments of Ouémé and Plateau in Benin, with black squares indicating the locations of patients’ residences.
Base layer provided by Ministry of Territory Planning of Benin (https://gadm.org/download_country_v3.html).
Fig 2.
Age and gender distribution of the recruited cohort.
Fig 3.
Photographs illustrating close contact with stagnant water during various activities.
A) Manual collection of semi-aquatic plants in damp lowland zones for animal feed; B) Manual weeding with a machete, carried out by a man wearing long clothing; C) Transporting crops from the fields, a task predominantly performed by women and children; D) Fishing activity using a pirogue on the river; E) Fishing using traps in swamps; F) Fishing with nets in irrigation canals.
Fig 4.
Territorial differences in weeding and harvesting activities during flood periods: These activities are more commonly practiced in the northern part of the study area due to topographical features.
Datas for the altitude and land surface are available from https://www.naturalearthdata.com/.
Fig 5.
Territorial specificity of irrigation canal usage: This activity is more prevalent in the southern part of the study area.
Spatial analysis shows a higher concentration of irrigation canals in the southern region compared to the northern region. Datas for the altitude and land surface are available from https://www.naturalearthdata.com/.
Table 1.
Socio-demographic features of the people included in the study.
Table 2.
Association between participants’ activities and Buruli ulcer – univariate analysis.
Table 3.
Association between participants’ activities and Buruli ulcer – multivariate analysis.
Table 4.
Associations between practicing mixed crops on flooded land, bathing activity, and BU cases according to age and gender.
Table 5.
Associations between frequenting irrigation channels, continuing to go to the fields during the flood periods and BU cases, according to the gender and the localization in the north or in the south of the study area.