Opinion: Climate change requires adapting malaria prevention campaigns

Preventing disease with seasonally distributed medicines saves lives. In 2022 alone, the intervention protected over 48 million children in 17 countries. But what happens when climate change causes shifts in the malaria season, and therefore the timing and duration of these preventive campaigns? 

Malaria is a disease that is sensitive to rainfall patterns, as heavy rainfall creates breeding conditions for mosquitoes that transmit the disease. Although rainfall patterns can shift due to many factors, a study conducted by the World Health Organization’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and the International Centre for Research and Development in Canada confirms that climate change is a key contributor. This causes mosquitoes to breed at different times and places, both reducing disease incidence in some areas and introducing the disease to new areas, where the population and health systems have no prior exposure. This makes seasonal distribution campaigns more challenging to plan and implement — and means more children may be at risk.

Read the full article on Devex.