Climate change and malaria

Health   Apr 13, 2016 by Thisuvi

There is a specific balance of temperature, humidity, and rainfall that creates the most ideal atmosphere for mosquitoes to breed and continue transmitting malaria.

Temperature affects a mosquito's life in several different ways. One being how long they live, how fast they mature into adulthood, how regularly they bite and lastly how they exist. Furthermore, it affects how parasites inside mosquitoes mature and end up infecting humans. Rainfall is another key factor that creates the most ideal condition for malaria carrying mosquitoes since it creates and allows mosquitoes to freely breed and lay their eggs in. Lastly, humidity is also a crucial factor that contributes to the malaria cycle. Humidity expands the lifespan of mosquitoes which unfortunately allows them to keep passing on the infectious disease from one person to another.

Moreover, studies have shown that increase in temperatures allowed the opportunity of malaria to be introduced in areas with higher altitudes such as Kenya and Colombia, putting millions of people at risk. However there are many other studies that proved, drastic increases in temperature has decreased the rates of malaria.

The relationship between malaria and climate change hasn’t fully been understood yet, however we can conclude that severe changes in temperature, rainfall and humidity will require us to safely take actions against malaria. 

http://www.nothingbutnets.net/blogs/the-connection...

http://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/summary/en...

http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/files/files/about/S...


Post comment

You must write a comment to post it!

2 Comment(s)

Snowy Wong
May 11, 2016

Great research! Are there any actions we can take to educate the public about the dangers that climate change poses in relation to the growing number of malaria carrying mosquitoes?

Kayla Greenman
Apr 18, 2016

It's hard to believe such a small insect has such a massive effect on our lives. Here on Manitoulin Island, we see the effects of mosquitos as well. I'm interested to see if you come up with a solution, to this rapidly spreading problem. 

Other Blogs
View all blogs
Share this post