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Image Courtesy of the CDC and William Brogdon (A)
Malaria
Research
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Image Courtesy of the CDC and James D. Gathany (A)
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Image Courtesy of the CDC and William Brogdon (A) |
Malaria
Research
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Image Courtesy of the CDC and James D. Gathany (A) |
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Malaria Imbedded in Human Tissue, Image Courtsey of the CDC and Dr. Edwin P. Ewing, Jr. (A) |
Globally, malaria cases are reported in the 300-500 million range, with deaths numbering between 1.5 and 2.7 million (Srivastava and Nagpal). The disease is transmitted by anopheline mosquitos, which breed in pools of water where the environmental conditions are favorable for both maturation of their young and the parasite (Connor et al, 1996). With the trend of global climate and environmental change, the patterns of malaria are changing. The disease in increase in both the scale of the epidemics and the number of infected humans dying. As with the other case studies, the environmental factors associated with the vector for the disease make malaria an excellent canadite for GIS research. |
Before GIS, the true extent of malaria was not even known (Bergquist, 2001). However, the research on malaria since the arrival of GIS has been extensive. Specifically, a collabortaion has been set up in Africa to create an atlas of malaria in order to aid efforts towards targeted control of the disease. Of the deaths from malaria, 90% occur in Africa. With limited resources for controlling the disease, mapping malaria would provide importnat data on the areas where these resources should be allocated.
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From over decades of malaria research, over 10,000 data points were collected from studies such as Omumbo et al., 1998. |
| From this data, risk maps were produced that are statisically based..... |  |
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......and based on climate. |
All images courtesy of MARA/ARMA, http://www.mara.org.za/home.htm
A complete slide show of their methods can be found at http://www.mara.org.za/SlideShow/index.html
The project that created the above maps is called MARA/ARMA (Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa / Atlas du Risque de la Malaria en Afrique). They currently have four functional netwroks set up in Africa with GIS software to continually update their databases. Their specific objectives are as follows:
"1. To map malaria risk in Africa
a) Through collection of published and unpublished malaria data.
b) Through spatial modelling of malaria distribution, seasonality and endemicity.
2. To disseminate relevant information to national and international decision
makers and other end users, in a range of useful formats.
3. To develop capacity in malaria / health GIS." (MARA/ARMA, 2001)
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