Malaria and Climate Change: Factors, Impact, and Initiatives

This report investigates the critical relationship between climate change and the spread of malaria. It identifies key factors such as temperature, rainfall, and humidity that influence mosquito populations and malaria transmission rates. The report details the negative health impacts of malaria, including increased risk of complications and potential for widespread epidemics, particularly affecting vulnerable populations like children and pregnant women. It further examines current initiatives aimed at addressing the problem, such as awareness campaigns, WHO recommendations, and projects focused on predicting and controlling malaria outbreaks. The report concludes by emphasizing the urgent need for action to mitigate the impact of climate change on infectious diseases like malaria, highlighting the importance of early warning systems and improved public health preparedness.

Climate change and the
problem is infectious
disease Malaria

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Identifying the problem and the factors that influences it in the area.........................................3
The impact of the problem if not solved and the inter-relationship between the influencing
factors..........................................................................................................................................5
Identify any current initiatives being taken to address the problem...........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
There are various problems that are being addressed in the community due to change in
climate. This climatic changes give rise to spread of infectious disease among people. And one
such disease that is spreading enormously nowadays among population due to change in climate
is Malaria (Raiten and Aimone, 2017).
This report will capture the details of the problems that are caused by Malaria and the
factors that are influencing it. This report will also provide solution to address these problems
that are faced by the people in that community due to spread of disease.
Identifying the problem and the various factors that influences malaria in that area
The problem that is been identified in the locality is climate change. And due to this the
population is facing various types of infectious disease such as Malaria. This disease is one of
the world's most crucial and deadly, tropical, mosquito-borne, parasitic sickness which almost
kills a person (Peter, 2017).
The factors that influence it can be changes in the climatic conditions such as
temperature, patterns of rainfall and humidity has a huge impact on the life of mosquito and on
the increase of malaria parasites in the mosquito and also in the number of of mosquito. Since
the mid-1950s there have been increase in global temperature in last 100 years. This has led to
increase in transmission rates of mosquito borne diseases as suggested by elementary models. It
has been identified that due to potential impact of climatic change there will be increase in
malaria. The opportunities for transmission of malaria will be increasing in traditionally
malarious area and in traditionally non-malarious area due to change in climate. At higher
altitudes, there will be a proliferation of malaria-carrying mosquito due to increase in rainfall,
temperature and humidity (Liang and Gong, 2017). Malaria is already a problem in lower
altitudes. The growth cycle of the parasite in mosquito will be altered in the warmer temperature
thus allowing them to develop faster, increasing the transmission and thus having an impact on
the spread of disease. Good breeding conditions for the mosquito is there in heavy rainfall. The
fluctuations in temperature can have an impact on the frequency of malaria transmission by
enhancing lifespan of mosquito and increasing the population of mosquito. There will be more
spread of mosquito at higher temperature as they mature faster. In the spread of malaria water
also play important roles as in small pools of water the most of the mosquito species breed. The
possible breading grounds for mosquito increases due to heavy rainfall thus resulting in more the

spread of disease. The number of malaria cases decreases in Drought but if the drought is
followed up by a rainy season it may become an epidemic as partial immunity to disease have
been built by fewer people.
The rise in global temperature can increase the number of mosquitoes in that particular
season. Due to warm temperature, the mosquitoes can move to higher altitudes and new regions.
The season of mosquitoes is lengthening due to global warming. The flooding and humidity
develop areas for mosquitoes to breed and allow breeding to take place more rapidly as in hotter
climates the eggs are hatched at faster rates. People are also at a danger to viruses due to the the
human migration so they are not immune. To respond to climate change the population migrate
as this will not bring diseases to new areas. In the overcrowded areas, the infectious diseases
spread more rapidly (Levy, 2017).

(Source:Loop Diagram for factors causing malaria, 2017)
Illustration 1: Factors of malaria

The impact of the problem if not solved and the inter-relationship between the influencing
factors
Since the mosquitoes lack the mechanism to regulate their internal mechanism so malaria
is growing among the porulation due to the climate change effects. The reproduction,
development, distribution and seasonal transmissions of malaria are taking place due to change
in climate factors (Caminade, McIntyre and Jones, 2017).
There is an negative impact on people's health in places where Malaria is not growing
rapidly due to climate change. In recent years as the temperature is increasing people are at
higher risk for developing malaria. There has been variation of degrees which develops a unique
breeding for mosquitoes to grow and mature that would carry virus that will infect people. There
will be an increased risk for complications from malaria such as cerebral malaria which is a sort
of malaria that will cause mental disability, paralysis and death by the disease. These areas are
hard hit by malaria as they are not familiar with it. They also don't know the signs and symptoms
and possess no immunity. The humans that are residing in thevarious places have never been
infected before and are unknowingly at danger for this spread of disease. The entire population
of people can be wiped out if there have been widespread epidemic of the disease due to increase
in temperature. The changes and variations in the temperature of the climate has the power to
end the lives of many innocent people.
This spread of malaria among people can impact children as their chances are high to be
infected with malaria. This will also increase the number of student absentees in schools and
will prevent the efforts that have been made by the government to enhance the literacy rates and
progress in the educational system. Under the age group of 5 the death take place
disproportionately in children this will increase the child mortality rates which will allow h
fertility areas the families to replace children lost in diseases. Thus, this will lead to rapid
growth of population which will produce the workforce which is wider than the availability of
jobs thus leading to unemployment and dissatisfaction among youth. The most vulnerable
population that can be infected by malaria includes pregnant women whose immunity reduces
during the period of pregnancy and also the traveller or migrants who are coming from various
different regions with the transmission of little or no malaria and thus lacks immunity (Ebi and
Hess, 2017).

The inter-relationship is due to increase in minimum and maximum temperature there is
significant increase in the rates of malaria. There is a relationship between factors of climate and
malaria (Buckee, Tatem and Metcalf, 2017).
Identify any current initiatives being taken to address the problem
From the perspective of system, various initiatives have been identified in order to
address the problem of malaria among the population. As the spread of malaria is at its peaks in
the area this can be dangerous for the people residing in that locality especially children and
pregnant women. So, some measures need to be taken to reduce the harmful impact of malaria
due to climatic change.
The awareness is being created among people regarding the impact of health of climate
change. The WHO organization produced various recommendations policies in order to prevent,
diagnose and treat malaria in the best possible way. The WHO recommends that usage of
mosquito nets in order to control the number of infected mosquitoes indoor spraying can be
done. The system is creating various programs in which the people will be made aware about the
harm that malaria has caused to people due to climatic change and also through these programs
people will be given important instruction on what to be done to reduce its impact. Various
projects are starting to understand the influences of climatic change and variability on the
transmission risks of malaria in that area by giving appropriate training and development tools to
prepare malaria control programs. A models have been made that would predict the highland
malaria. This tool will be helpful to predict the malaria in advance. To help to prevent epidemics
on public health preventions better tools for malaria forecasting to support decision-making are
been created by the system. The system have made a project that would focus on these area to
reduce the harmful impact of malaria (Adegboye, Al-Saghir and LEUNG, 2017 ).
Weather forecasting use can be improved-The data that are needed to prepare malaria epidemics
can be provided by forecasting through global weather network. The information related to
health specific weather information is limited at all levels.
Disease prediction capacity can be improved-To improve preparedness for malaria epidemics
the development of an Early Warning System is taken despite the deficiency in the quality of the
recent collected data on health.

Improvement in epidemic preparedness and detection of disease –various plans have been made
for epidemics preparedness and response by the districts. While on the other side there may be a
challenge due to availability of the resources.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the above report it can be concluded that due to climatic change there have
been an increase in the spread of infectious disease in the area. The major factors for this can be
increase in heavy rainfall, humidity, drought and dry place. The rise of global temperature has
also lead to increase in mosquitoes. All these factors together have led to increase in the number
of mosquitoes due to which the people are affecting by it. The impact of this disease on
population is increasing rapidly and the children, pregnant women and the migrants are at high
risk of getting infected. There have been variation of degrees which develops a unique breeding
for mosquitoes to grow and mature that would carry virus that will infect people. So various
initiatives are taken by the system in order to reduce its impact on the people.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adegboye, O.A., Al-Saghir, M. and LEUNG, D.H., 2017. Joint spatial time-series
epidemiological analysis of malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis infection. Epidemiology
& Infection. 145(4), pp.685-700.
Buckee, C.O., Tatem, A.J. and Metcalf, C.J.E., 2017. Seasonal population movements and the
surveillance and control of infectious diseases. Trends in parasitology. 33(1), pp.10-20.
Caminade, C., McIntyre, K.M. and Jones, A.E., 2017. Reply to Gautret et al. The Journal of
infectious diseases. 215(4), pp.661-662.
Ebi, K.L. and Hess, J.J., 2017. The past and future in understanding the health risks of and
responses to climate variability and change. International Journal of Biometeorology.
pp.1-10.
Levy, K., 2017. Reducing health regrets in a changing climate. Journal of Infectious Diseases.
215(1), pp.14-16.
Liang, L. and Gong, P., 2017. Climate change and human infectious diseases: A synthesis of
research findings from global and spatio-temporal perspectives. Environment
International. 103, pp.99-108.
Peter, J., 2017. 'Science Tikkun': Repairing the World through the Science of Neglected
Diseases, Science Diplomacy, and Public Engagement.
Raiten, D.J. and Aimone, A.M., 2017. The intersection of climate/environment, food, nutrition
and health: crisis and opportunity. Current opinion in biotechnology. 44, pp.52-62.
Online
Loop Diagram for factors causing malaria. 2017. [Online] Available through:
<https://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1665/20130551>. [Accessed on 24
August 2017]