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WORKING GROUPSHydroclimate Controls on Malaria Dynamics: An Interdisciplinary Approach 
Introduction Malaria is the single most deadly infectious disease in the world today (Sherman 1998; Snow, Craig et al. 1999; National Center for Infectious Diseases 2004). Every year there are 350 to 500 million cases worldwide with approximately 90% of those cases in the endemic regions of Africa. Over one million people die from the disease annually with an estimated 75% of those deaths from African children (National Center for Infectious Diseases 2004). The disease is such a threat to human well-being that the director of the World Health Organization's Malaria Department implored policy makers and environmental groups to allow the use of the highly toxic chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in the fight against malaria (Kochi 2006) and the World Health Organization has begun to promote the use of DDT in homes to combat the spread of the mosquitoes that carry malaria. Malaria is caused by one of four malaria parasites: Plasmodium vivax, P. malariae, P. falciparum, and P. ovale. Parasites are transmitted primarily by the Anopheles mosquito (Holt, Subramanian et al. 2002). The two species of Anopheles in the United States that transmitted the disease prior to its domestic eradication in 1947 are still prevalent (National Center for Infectious Diseases 2004). There is a strong seasonal climate signature present in the dynamics of this disease, and a broad desire to understand how malaria patterns may change with a changing climate. However, the climate controls are tightly intertwined with immunity dynamics and public health measures. Moreover, attempts to compare malaria infection rate predictions to data are frustrated by serious issues surrounding the data. For example, the intensity of infection data collection and the reporting standards vary geographically, with a tendency for abrupt changes across political boundaries (Kleinschmidt et al., 2000). The same is true for disease prevention efforts, such as distribution of prophylactic medication and insecticide-treated bed nets. This working group seeks support to bring together an interdisciplinary team to make preliminary progress on this global health-climate problem and to host a workshop at Duke to examine: 1) basic issues of climate, public health, and malaria disease dynamics; 2) ways to synthesize malaria infection data across space and time, in light of the ad hoc nature of the data collection and reporting protocols; and, 3) to develop a plan for rigorous climate-disease model testing with the available data. The working group includes experts in hydroclimate, terrestrial ecology, and infectious disease dynamics. Through the workshop this team will involve experts in Global health, with the intention of including these collaborations in a subsequent externally funded project. Working group members: ©2008 Center on Global Change |
