IRI’s Efforts to Combat Malaria

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 marks 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.

IRI’s diverse set of experts demonstrate 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.

Read all about the IRI’s malaria work here.

• Malaria and dengue fever in Colombia (0)
• IRI data on NASA’s mapping tool (0)