Global malaria distribution map released
BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) — About 35 percent of the world population, meaning 2.37 billion people, are at risk from malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases, as the first global spatial distribution map, published Tuesday, showed. ”We were very surprised to find a significant number of people were facing a much lower risk than was previously thought,” said Simon Hay, one of the authors from the University of Oxford.
The Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), a collaboration between the Kenyan Medical Research Institute and the University of Oxford, funded by the Wellcome Trust, collected information including nationally reported data on malaria cases, travel advisories, and surveys in several thousand communities across 87 countries.
Researchers constructed the map which also provides an estimate of the number of people who are living in areas where malaria transmission is low, and where it should be possible to use existing control strategies to eliminate the parasite.
”The situation isn’t quite as dire for large parts of the planet as people had imagined and, with some concerted effort, we could make very big inroads with the tools that we’ve got,” Hay said.
”If mosquitoes don’t get enough chances to bite, the transmission cycle wanes and disappears. In these very low transmission areas, you just need to push the disease a little bit and it should collapse,” Hay added.
The project also highlights potential problems facing countries currently aiming to eliminate malaria.
For example, Saudi Arabia is currently providing substantial financial support for the elimination of malaria in its neighbour, Yemen. However, the new research shows how high rates of population inflow from Somalia will pose a continued concern due to the potential reintroduction of the parasite.
Authors have published their research online in an open access journal, to guarantee global availability and facilitate ongoing updates, by the open access release of the maps via their website, as new data become available.
(Agencies)
Global malaria distribution map released
