"The number of malaria cases rose again in 2022, propelled by flooding and warmer weather in areas once free of the illness."
"There were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria around the globe last year, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, significantly more than before the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase of five million over 2021. Malaria remains a top killer of children.
Those new cases were concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia and Papua-New Guinea. Climate change was a direct contributor in three of them, said Dr. Daniel Ngamije, who directs the W.H.O. malaria program.
In July 2022, massive flooding left more than a third of Pakistan underwater and displaced 33 million people. An explosion of mosquitoes soon followed. The country reported 3.1 million confirmed cases of malaria that year, compared with 275,000 the year before, with a fivefold increase in the rate of transmission.
“With the very heavy monsoons we expected these consequences, but not up to this magnitude,” said Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar, director of Pakistan’s national malaria control program."
Stephanie Nolen reports for the New York Times November 30, 2023.
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