2.3 billion live in areas at risk of P. Falciparum malaria, map shows
About 2.37 billion people worldwide - or 35% of the global population - live in areas at risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, according to a global map of malaria distribution published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine, Xinhuanet reports.
The Malaria Atlas Project - which includes researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the University of Oxford - collected national malaria case data, travel advisories, surveys and other information from communities in 87 countries to create the map. The project provides an estimate of the number of people living in areas where malaria transmission is low and where existing control strategies could be used to eradicate the disease. In addition, the map identifies some of the potential problems that countries aiming to eliminate malaria currently face (Xinhuanet, 2/26).
The map, which was the first to be published in 40 years, showed that parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa face a significantly lower risk of malaria transmission than previously thought, Reuters reports. It also found that nearly half of the people living in areas at risk of malaria have less than a 0.01% chance of contracting the disease. Although the prevalence of P. falciparum malaria is higher than 50% in parts of Africa, the study finds that significant areas of the continent are more responsive to malaria control measures than previously thought, Reuters reports (Hirschler, Reuters, 2/25).
Simon Hay, a MAP scientist from the University of Oxford, said the researchers were "very surprised" with the results of the study. "The situation isn't quite as dire for large parts of the planet as people had imagined," Hay said, adding that "with some concerted effort we could make very big inroads with the tools that we've got" (Xinhuanet, 2/26). More extensive use of insecticide-treated nets could be enough to eliminate malaria in regions where about one billion people live, according to Reuters. "If mosquitoes don't get enough chances to bite, the transmission cycle wanes and disappears," Hay said, adding, "In these very low transmission areas, you just need to push the disease a little bit and it should collapse." MAP is funded by the Wellcome Trust (Reuters, 2/25).
The study is available online
