Achieving global malaria eradication in changing landscapes

Abstract

Land use and land cover changes, such as deforestation, agricultural expansion and urbanization, are one of the largest anthropogenic environmental changes globally. Recent initiatives to evaluate the feasibility of malaria eradication have highlighted impacts of landscape changes on malaria transmission and the potential of these changes to undermine malaria control and elimination efforts. Multisectoral approaches are needed to detect and minimize negative impacts of land use and land cover changes on malaria transmission while supporting development aiding malaria control, elimination and ultimately eradication. Pathways through which land use and land cover changes disrupt social and ecological systems to increase or decrease malaria risks are outlined, identifying priorities and opportunities for a global malaria eradication campaign. The impacts of land use and land cover changes on malaria transmission are complex and highly context-specific, with effects changing over time and space. Landscape changes are only one element of a complex development process with wider economic and social dimensions affecting human health and wellbeing. While deforestation and other landscape changes threaten to undermine malaria control efforts and have driven the emergence of zoonotic malaria, most of the malaria elimination successes have been underpinned by agricultural development and land management. Malaria eradication is not feasible without addressing these changing risks while, conversely, consideration of malaria impacts in land management decisions has the potential to significantly accelerate progress towards eradication. Multisectoral cooperation and approaches to linking malaria control and environmental science, such as conducting locally relevant ecological monitoring, integrating landscape data into malaria surveillance systems and designing environmental management strategies to reduce malaria burdens, are essential to achieve malaria eradication.

Data-driven and interpretable machine-learning modeling to explore the fine-scale environmental determinants of malaria vectors biting rates in rural Burkina Faso

“…coluzzii . Overall, this indicates that local landscape conditions are important drivers of the bio-ecology of the malaria vectors in rural areas, confirming the literature [ 5 , 12 , 17 ].…”

“…A modification of land cover/use may therefore either increase or decrease vector abundance relative to species ecological preferences. As an example, deforestation can increase larval breeding sites of malaria vectors growing in sunny puddles, whereas it destroys habitats of some deep-forest Anopheles species [ 5 , 12 ]. Moreover, even when found together, Anopheles species often exhibit specific ecological preferences [ 13 , 14 ].…”

A Comprehensive Survey of Asymptomatic Malaria Cases in an Endemic Focus in Iran: A Successful Experience on the Road to Eliminate Malaria

“…Malaria is one of the important infectious blood diseases caused by the protozoan parasite of the genus Plasmodium and transmitted by female Anopheles mosquito bites (1,2). To date, five species of Plasmodium have been reported to cause human malaria, among which Plasmodium falciparum is considered a malignant species and linked to the highest rate of deaths from malaria.…”

In search of the last malaria cases: ethnographic methods for community and private-sector engagement in malaria elimination in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

“…Flexible strategies, such as ethnographic methods, to adapt to the rapidly changing environment (e.g. deforestation) that can impact malaria transmission patterns and at-risk populations will prove essential [ 27 , 53 ]. Moreover, in-depth ethnographic research into different notions of the forest, various activities and mobility linked to the exposure to malaria is required [ 31 , 33 , 52 ].…”

“…Moreover, these practices result in deforestation, which in turn is linked to greater malaria risk in GMS because it disrupts ecological conditions and creates favourable environment for malaria vectors (e.g. reduction in predators of mosquitoes and increased larval survivorship) [ 5 , 6 , 23 – 27 ].…”