Remote communities in the Amazon forest are feeling the effects of a malaria epidemic, despite having been free from the mosquito-borne disease for decades. The highest concentration of cases is occurring in areas where logging and deforestation are prevalent.

According to the Andean Health Organisation (AHO), which operates across Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, there have been 32,000 cases this year alone in the Peruvian Amazon. ‘We are not talking about eradicating malaria anymore, as that is impossible and unsustainable; we are doing our best to try to control it,’ said Hugo Rodriguez, an AHO doctor working in the area.

Last year, two Peruvian studies identified a clear link between malaria and logging, with the likelihood of finding malarial mosquitoes increasing in cleared settlements. One study found that the prevalence of biting mosquitoes in deforested areas was nearly 300 times greater than in pristine forest.

Climate change may also be playing a part in the disease’s spread, with unseasonable rains creating open sunlit pools of water in cleared areas, which provide an ideal nursery for mosquito larvae.

The task of controlling the disease is made more difficult by the remoteness of the affected communities, many of which are located deep inside the Amazon, where even the most populous areas have little access to medical advice and treatment.


January 2008