Whymalaria?
Despite the means employed, malaria continues to affect several
hundred million people every year in the world’s tropical regions.
In such places, an environment that is conducive to the mosquitoes
that act as vectors for the parasite, along with poverty, are
a breeding ground for the disease. Better understanding the different
factors that encourage malaria is one of the objectives
of scientific research.
In the Sahel, epidemics occur above all during
the monsoon season (here, in Burkina Faso).
Heat and humidity, two risk factors
Anopheles, the mosquito that is the vector for malaria, likes heat and humidity. The mosquitoes lay their eggs
in stagnant fresh water (lakes, rice fields…) where the larvae develop. In tropical regions, which have year-round
high temperatures and heavy rainfall, the transmission of the parasites by anophele is permanent. In drier areas,
such as the Sahel, it is during the rainy season that the epidemics emerge. Malaria is much more common
in the country than in towns, as it is an environment that is more suitable for the vector.
Certain modifications to the environment, such as deforestation, the creation of rice fields or excavation work (like ruts or ditches), create a milieu
that is extremely favourable for breeding places. In the villages situated close to these mosquito “nurseries”, the risk of transmission is thus considerable.
According to researchers, global warming may modify the areas in which malaria is present, with the disease developing in the warmer and more
humid areas, and regressing in those that are desertifying.
Malaria rages in hot, humid areas such as the Amazon rainforest.
To the very heart of poverty
The countries with the highest numbers of malaria victims are also amongst the poorest on the planet. This overmortality can be explained by the cost of treatments and means of prevention, but also by the very poor network
of medical centres, plus their lack of financial means, equipment and trained personnel. When you add in poverty,
these failings in the health system result in populations resorting to self-medication, to using cheap
but ineffective treatments or to traditional medicine.
Researchers in the field of social sciences have focused on answering a question that is crucial in the fight against malaria: how can we improve
access to treatments and acceptance of prevention measures? To do so, they have studied the social, economic and cultural factors that accentuate
the vulnerability of populations with the disease, such as, for example, problems with access to healthcare systems, treatment practices in the context
of poverty, or the representations of the disease. Taking these various factors into account when putting together health policies is some guarantee
of their success.
An insanitary canal that favours the reproduction
of mosquitoes (Burkina Faso).
A Vietnamese village with a high risk for malaria.
Promoting a centre
for traditional medicine
(Burkina Faso).
Massages given
by a medicine man
in Senegal.