PAHO-WHO Collaborating Centre

Malaria affects between 300 and 500 million people every year, according to the WHO. It causes two percent of all deaths worldwide--among them 3,000 children a day, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Complications from malaria, such as severe anemia, account for at least a million additional deaths. Most of the countries where endemic and epidemic malaria occurs are among the poorest on Earth. Because the disease causes widespread illness and death, it is a great drain on many national economies, consuming as much as 40% of their public-health expenditures.

April 25 marked the first World Malaria Day, created by the World Health Organization to raise global awareness of this devastating but preventable infectious disease. As a PAHO-WHO Collaborating Centre, the IRI has long provided countries the technical support needed to develop early warning systems for malaria and other climate sensitive diseases.

"Having this relationship with PAHO and WHO is important to the IRI because it gives us more legitimacy and credibility to work in epidemic prone countries," says Stephen Connor, who is the Collaborating Centre's director. "Through the global network of these organizations, we are able to disseminate our knowledge and training, and can line up with their larger-scale policy developments."

IRI's diverse set of experts demonstrates ways in which climate information, such as historic variability, real-time monitoring and seasonal forecasting, improves decision making in health, agriculture and other climate-sensitive sectors.

"For example, climate information enhances malaria prevention and control in a number of ways," says Madeleine Thomson, who runs IRI's Africa Program. "It improves our ability to both predict year-to-year variations of epidemics and to more accurately assess the impact of interventions." In addition, Thomson says climate information also improves:

• Understanding of host, vector and parasite biology/ecology,
• Accuracy of surveillance systems, including estimating populations at risk, and
• Understanding of the long-term implications of global climate change for malaria control.

Here are some of IRI's ongoing efforts to help countries combat malaria:

Disease early-warning systems in Colombia: IRI is advising the government of Colombia on using climate risk management in an ongoing project to improve its early-warning system for malaria and dengue fever. The work is overseen by the World Bank, and funded by Global Environmental Facility and Colombia. (more)

Malaria Early Warning Systems in Africa: The MEWS interface facilitates understanding of the current rainy season by providing a seasonal and historical context. It displays the most recent rainfall estimates and generates custom time-series graphs, which provide an analysis of recent rainfall compared to that of recent seasons and the short-term historical average. The MEWS has been introduced over the past few years in African countries with epidemic-prone areas, including Eritrea, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. (more and more)

Malaria Outlook Forums in Africa: The MALOFs provides the opportunity for malaria-control services to review the regional climate forecasts, examine vulnerability factors and map vulnerable areas for the purpose of developing action plans for epidemic preparedness over the coming season. (more)

Malaria and Sri Lanka: In collaboration with the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health and other government research partners, IRI and the International Water Management Institute have undertaken a project to characterize climate and malaria linkages in Sri Lanka. The goal is to develop models to forecast malaria risk and a prototype early warning system for the Uva Province. (more)

Climate Matters in Health workshop: The Anti Malaria Association of Ethiopia and IRI held a one-day workshop in February on how climate information could be used in malaria early warning. Representatives from the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, National Metrological Agency and others participated. As a result a working group was formed to develop and oversee better climate-health knowledge coordination among government agencies and other organizations. (more)

Relevant Links

IRI's Malaria Map Rooms

Learning from 10 Years of Climate Outlook Forums in Africa

Climate Risk Management in Africa: Learning from Practice

Climate Information for Adaptation and Development Needs (pp. 18 and 28)