Deforestation = more malaria; study

Reuters reports that malaria rates rise when the forests are cut down in the Amazon according to a study by U.S. researchers.

The scientists found in their study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, a 48 percent increase in malaria rates in Brazil after 4 percent of the tree cover was cut down.

"Conservation policy and public health policy are one and the same," Jonathan Patz, the professor who oversaw the work, said in a telephone interview. "How we manage our landscapes and, in this case, tropical rain forest has implications for public health."

Malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 860,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. Brazil has about 500,000 cases a year of malaria, most carried by Anopheles darling mosquito.

Patz's team has been tracking mosquito populations and how they change as forests are cut down in Brazil and Peru. They took satellite data showing changes in tree cover in one county of Brazil's Amazon region and linked it with health records showing diagnosed cases of malaria.

Read the full story: Cleared forests lead to rise in malaria in Brazil

Photo from Nature's Crusaders / Stephen Ferry / Getty