Sri Lanka Malaria Maps

BACKGROUND: Despite a relatively good national case reporting system in Sri Lanka, detailed maps of malaria distribution have not been publicly available. METHODS: In this study, monthly records over the period 1995 – 2000 of microscopically confirmed malaria parasite positive blood film readings, at sub-district spatial resolution, were used to produce maps of malaria distribution across the island. Also, annual malaria trends at district resolution were displayed for the period 1995 – 2002. RESULTS: The maps show that Plasmodium vivax malaria incidence has a marked variation in distribution over the island. The incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria follows a similar spatial pattern but is generally much lower than that of P. vivax. In the north, malaria shows one seasonal peak in the beginning of the year, whereas towards the south a second peak around June is more pronounced. CONCLUSION: This paper provides the first publicly available maps of both P. vivax and P. falciparum malaria incidence distribution on the island of Sri Lanka at sub-district resolution, which may be useful to health professionals, travellers and travel medicine professionals in their assessment of malaria risk in Sri Lanka. As incidence of malaria changes over time, regular updates of these maps are necessary

Malaria and Irrigated Crops, Accra, Ghana

We investigated the prevalence of malaria and associated risk factors in children living in urban Ghana. Malaria prevalence was associated with low hemoglobin concentration, low socioeconomic status, and higher age. Our findings indicate that African urban poor are seriously affected by malaria and that irrigated agriculture may increase this risk

Impact of urban agriculture on malaria vectors in Accra, Ghana

To investigate the impact of urban agriculture on malaria transmission risk in urban Accra larval and adult stage mosquito surveys, were performed. Local transmission was implicated as Anopheles spp. were found breeding and infected Anopheles mosquitoes were found resting in houses in the study sites. The predominant Anopheles species was Anopheles gambiae s.s.. The relative proportion of molecular forms within a subset of specimens was 86% S-form and 14% M-form. Anopheles spp. and Culex quinquefasciatus outdoor biting rates were respectively three and four times higher in areas around agricultural sites (UA) than in areas far from agriculture (U). The annual Entomological Inoculation Rate (EIR), the number of infectious bites received per individual per year, was 19.2 and 6.6 in UA and U sites, respectively. Breeding sites were highly transitory in nature, which poses a challenge for larval control in this setting. The data also suggest that the epidemiological importance of urban agricultural areas may be the provision of resting sites for adults rather than an increased number of larval habitats. Host-seeking activity peaked between 2–3 am, indicating that insecticide-treated bednets should be an effective control method

Malaria and its control: An Asian perspective

Presidential address, Section D: SLAAS Proceedings of the 56th Annual Session. Part II

Malaria vectors in Sri Lanka

In Klinkenberg, E. (Ed.), Malaria risk mapping in Sri Lanka: Implications for its use in control - Proceedings of a workshop held at the International Water Management Institute, Colombo, 25 May 2001. Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMIIWMI Working Paper 2

Water, health and environment

In Giordano, Meredith; Rijsberman, Frank; Saleth, Maria. (Eds.). More crop per drop: revisiting a research paradigm: results and synthesis of IWMI's research, 1996- 2005. London, UK: IWA Publishing; Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI

Mosquito vector studies in irrigation systems in Sri Lanka. [Abstract only].

Paper presented at the 14th International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria, November 17-22, 1996, Nagasaki, Japa

Assessing the impact of irrigation development on the environment and human health

Paper presented at the Inception Workshop on IWMI-BOKU-Sieberdorf-EARO-Arbamintch University Collaborative Study on the Impact of Irrigation Development on Poverty and the Environment, ILRI, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 26-30 April 200