Malaria

Deforestation, land exploitation, dam-building, and irrigation have increased opportunities for transmission by creating vector habitats and bringing non-immune people into malarious areas. This "man-made" malaria has contributed to a resurgence of the disease in many parts of the world. South of the Sahara, an estimated 250 million people are chronically infected and about 90 million suffer acute manifestations of the disease during the year. In Latin America, reported malaria cases rose from about 399,000 in 1977 to 1.1 million in 1988. In south and southeast Asia, a resurgence of malaria that began during the 1970"s continues today. This report provides information on malaria transmission, distribution, and severity. It then briefly describes the history of malaria control and current control measures, including chemotherapy, chemical control, environmental management, and biological and integrated control. Constraints to control are identified as they relate to drug and insecticide resistance, alternative methods, institutions, human resources, and economics. Final sections summarize current research related to malaria and A.I.D."s role in malaria control.