Climate &Environment &Mosquitoes &Zoonoses Bill Brieger | 22 Apr 2017 09:01 am
Earth Day, Climate, Environment and Malaria
The Earth Day website notes that, “Our planet is currently losing over 15 billion trees each year—that’s 56 acres of forest every minute. We’re working hard to reverse that trend by supporting global reforestation projects. Earth Day Network’s Reforestation Campaign benefits local communities, increases habitat for species, and combats climate change.”
This habitat change if often conducive to the spread of malaria in areas and among populations that may not have been affected before. Specifically, “More risks associated with El Niño are: flooding and landslides in the Americas, drought in Southeast Asia and Australia, scrambled fisheries, and malaria, cholera, and dengue outbreaks.”
Terry Devitt reported that the incidence of malaria jumps when Amazon forests are cut, establishing a firm link between environmental change and human disease. The report, which combines detailed information on the incidence of malaria in 54 Brazilian health districts and high-resolution satellite imagery of the extent of logging in the Amazon forest, shows that clearing tropical forest landscapes boosts the incidence of malaria by nearly 50 percent (according to Olson and colleagues).
Moyes et al. Predicted the geographical distributions of the macaque hosts and mosquito vectors of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria in forested and non-forested areas of Southeast Asia. When urbanization and deforestation bring people into habitats they never lived in, zoonotic transmission of malaria results. Fornace et al. similarly observed that, “Marked spatial heterogeneity in P. knowlesi incidence was observed, and village-level numbers of P. knowlesi cases were positively associated with forest cover and historical forest loss in surrounding areas. These results suggest the likelihood that deforestation and associated environmental changes are key drivers in P. knowlesi transmission in these areas” of Malaysia.
Back to Brazil, de 
Alvarenga and co-researchers reported in the transmission of Plasmodium simian malaria in the Brazilian Atlantic forest as a natural infection of capuchin monkeys (Cebinae subfamily). Because of human movement into forest areas, cases among people have now been documented.
The zoonotic transmission of malaria to humans due to changes in climate, environment and habitat pose another unwanted challenge to global efforts to eliminate malaria. On Earth Day it is imperative for malaria control and elimination workers to collaborate closely with colleagues in environmental health and protection.