Landscape responsible for spread of malaria

The spread of malaria in South America has more to do with landscape than humidity, new research suggests.

An international study, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that malaria rates have fallen in the wettest areas of the Amazon.

The team found that cases of the disease fall by as much as 80 per cent in the wetlands and in areas alongside the river following five inches of rain.

However, in dry areas of the Amazon basin cases of malaria were found to rise by almost 100 per cent after rainfall.

"In places with abundant wetlands along the Amazon River, malaria rates drop soon after rainfall," UW-Madison graduate student and lead researcher Sarah Olson said.

"Whereas in the southern uplands of the Amazon basin, where there is much less surface water, malaria increases following rainfall," she added.

Around 500,000 cases of malaria occur in the Amazon each year.

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