What is it about?
Most of the rise in malaria cases in the Americas is due to increases in malaria transmission in Venezuela. Within this country, populations in the southeastern (Guiana Shield) region have been at the highest risk of Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum infection. We identified and assessed that the main driver of this epidemiological situation over the last years is the increase of Illegal goldmining in the south of the country. Thus, successful control of Venezuela’s ongoing malaria epidemic requires hotspot-targeted control at the national level and regional coordination to avoid cross-border malaria spillover.
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Why is it important?
Given the current context, successful control of the ongoing malaria epidemic in Venezuela requires national and regional coordination, as evidenced by the cross-border malaria spillover. Without coordinated international efforts, the progress achieved toward malaria elimination in Latin America over the past 18 years could be easily reversed.
Perspectives
Malaria is the mosquito-borne infection with the highest burden of morbidity and mortality globally. In the Americas, the largest area of transmission of this parasitosis, caused by various species of Plasmodium, occurs in the Amazon Forest. The transmission of this infection is sensitive to ecological changes in the landscape, hence that the recent reemergence of malaria in Venezuela and Brazil, countries that contribute > 60% of the cases in the region, is mainly due to the increase in deforestation in much of its Amazonia. It is important to evidence how changes in land use or deforestation are related to increased malaria transmission. Here, we suggest that forest degradation promoted by goldmining increases the human-vector contact and with it the risk of transmission of malaria. Based on these results, it can be stated that malaria patterns on a large scale are determined by the ecology of the vector, parasite and host on a local scale. Hence, the sustainability of the malaria elimination strategy in the Americas will require a better understanding of the ecology and adaptation of mosquito vectors to the increasing and significant conversion, due to anthropic pressures, of forested lands to areas without forests in the Amazon region
PhD Maria Eugenia Grillet
Universidad Central de Venezuela
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Malaria in Southern Venezuela: The hottest hotspot in Latin America, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, January 2021, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008211.
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