At a time when climate change is fundamentally changing our world – affecting weather patterns, sea levels, and ecosystems – perhaps one of the least noticed but increasingly critical shifts is the effect of climate on malaria, especially infection leading to malaria in children. Pediatric malaria remains an important global health challenge, given the unusually high burden of the disease in children across the malaria-endemic world. In this context, we review how climate change interacts with human disease and discuss some key considerations for parents ahead of the coming rainy season. Specifically, understanding these interactions can help families prepare and take necessary precautions to safeguard their children’s health.
Understanding Pediatric Malaria
Malaria is a disease that affects people and is caused by parasites of the Plasmodium genus. Specifically, it is transmitted to humans through the bite of an Anopheles mosquito that has previously fed on an infected person. Consequently, understanding this transmission process is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies.
Children under the age of five years are the most susceptible because their immune defenses have not been fully developed and can resist the disease. In this case, it can end in serious cases of anemia, cerebral malaria, and even death if not treated with proper and timely medicine.
Climate Change and Its Impact on Malaria Transmission
Climate change largely affects malaria transmission by influencing the environment favored by parasite-carrying mosquitoes in various ways. Here are the pathways by which climate change causes pediatric malaria.
Increased Temperature:
Mosquito lifecycle (wikipedia.org)Hotter temperatures mean a shorter mosquito lifecycle which means faster reproduction and feeding frequencies, thus a larger population of mosquitoes with more desire and ability to spread malaria.
Parasite Development: Higher temperatures also lead to quicker development of malaria parasites inside mosquitoes. This means mosquitoes will become infectious more quickly and are more likely to transmit malaria.
Changes in Rainfall Patterns:
Breeding Sites: Mosquitoes that carry malaria breed in stagnant water. As a result, increases in extreme and irregular rainfall create more breeding sites for these mosquitoes, thereby contributing to a rise in their populations. Consequently, this increase in mosquito numbers can lead to a higher incidence of malaria transmission.
Flooding — heavier rains and additional flooding — can cause communities to move and water to pool up in new locations, extending the mosquito breeding habitat.
Extended Mosquito Seasons:
Longer Transmission Periods: Warmer temperatures and altered rainfall patterns can lengthen the mosquito breeding and biting season. In areas where malaria transmission was previously seasonal, there have been increases in the length of transmission periods due to climate change.
Expansion of Malaria Zones:
Geographic spread: with increasing temperatures, the mosquitoes and the malaria parasite themselves are moving up to higher altitudes and into previously non-endemic areas, finding fewer children already immunized for the disease.
How Climate Change Affects Pediatric Malaria
The interplay between climate change and pediatric malaria has several implications:
Increased Incidence:
Raise Risk of Infection: Increased rates of malaria are likely to result in more frequent and severe outbreaks in previously unaffected areas. This will spell more cases for kids, the group that always suffers the most adverse effects of the disease.
Higher Mortality Rates:
Severe disease: children with malaria experience more severe disease and die in greater numbers When annual transmission rates rise and when malaria season becomes longer, this increases the risk of more severe disease, including death, particularly in children. Potentially, this could lead to increased mortality rates.
Healthcare Strain:
2. Resource Allocation: Increased malaria cases put extra stress on healthcare resources Climate change-driven increases in malaria cases could put healthcare resources under greater stress. Where malaria cases are increasing, such as in some highlands of western Kenya, as a result of climate change, existing healthcare resources may become increasingly strained, limiting the kind and amount of care available to children.
What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Children
As the ecology of malaria changes, the first line of action is to protect their children. The following are practical steps that parents can take to help keep their children safe:
Use Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs):
Consistent use: make sure children sleep under ITNs every single night ITNs are one of the best barriers to mosquito biting inside the home and are highly effective in reducing malaria transmission.
Implement Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS):
Pest Control: Participate in local indoor-residual spraying (IRS) campaigns and operations that involve spraying insecticides on indoor surfaces to kill mosquitoes that land on or touch the treated surfaces.
Maintain Environmental Hygiene:
Don’t Breed Mosquitoes: Tip out standing water from buckets, old tires, empty cans, tree stumps, or any other container where mosquitoes could breed at least once or twice a week.
Seek Timely Medical Attention:
Early Diagnosis and Treatment: If there is any suspicion of malaria (fever and chills, headache, etc) get examined by a medical doctor – early diagnosis and treatment are vital in preventing the progression of the disease.
Support Climate Change Mitigation Efforts:
Advocacy: Endorses and supports local and international efforts against climate change. Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions will help to mitigate climate change-driven transitions in malaria transmission.
Educate and Raise Awareness:
Community Action: Learn about how climate change worsens malaria and promote the use of preventative measures in your community. Awareness in the community can improve overall abilities when it comes to tackling malaria.
Looking Forward: Adaptation and Resilience
Taking action to mitigate the consequences of a shifting climate on pediatric malaria will require adaptation and resilience-building:
Strengthen Healthcare Systems:
Training [on healthcare infrastructure and training of healthcare workers] builds capacity, allowing the health system to cope better with higher malaria caseloads, and allows for better care for sick children.
Enhance Surveillance and Early Warning Systems:
Surveillance: Continual incidence monitoring would improve the capacity to respond to malaria focal outbreaks and changes in transmission. Early warning systems would allow timely alerts and help prioritize proactive strategies.
Invest in Research and Innovation:
New Tools: more research into new malaria prevention tools, treatments, and vaccines can reduce the burden of climate-induced expansion. More novel vector control innovations and rapid malaria diagnostics can be key.
Promote Community-Based Interventions:
Local Engagement: Programmes that engage local leaders and residents in malaria control measures will improve the efficacy of interventions and better adapt them to local needs.
While climate change has implications for virtually every aspect of these children’s lives, nowhere is it more likely to cause huge increases in malaria than in preschool infants. A better understanding of the geographical and seasonal scale of these risks will help parents take proactive action.
Furthermore, proactive efforts, timely medical care, and advocacy for mass-scale interventions to mitigate climate change will all need to be part of our response to protect children’s health. In an era of climate change, success in reducing the burden of this ancient disease will require collective action that is powerful, broad, and deep enough to effectively lower the planetary temperature. Ultimately, for our children, there is no greater priority.
