Ben Webster, Times Online 31 Dec 09;
Global warming has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a British-funded research team has found.
A 2C increase in average temperatures around the mountain in the past 20 years has allowed the disease to creep into higher altitude areas, where the local population of four million has little or no immunity.
The researchers, funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), found that the average temperature in the Kenyan Central Highlands had risen from 17C in 1989 to 19C today.
Before the 1990s malaria was absent from the region because the parasite that causes it can mature only above 18C. However, malaria epidemics began among the population as average temperatures went over the 18C tipping point. The number of people contracting malaria during these epidemics has increased seven-fold in the past decade. In 2005, malaria-carrying anopheles mosquitoes were discovered in Naru Moro, more than 6,175ft (1,900m) above sea level.
The team, from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere had been attributed to multiple factors, including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change here had been the rise in temperature.
A DfID spokesman said the research had also concluded that emissions from human activity, rather than natural climate variability, were responsible for the change in temperature. He said: “The seven-fold increase is directly attributable to man-made climate change. One of the problems in making the link between climate change and malaria is that natural factors usually have a part to play.
“For instance some claim that the recent outbreak of malaria around Nairobi has been caused by climate change when in fact this probably has more to do with changes in drainage systems and population expansion. But in the Central Highlands the researchers have been able to rule these out and directly attribute the change to a 2C increase in the average temperature.”
The institute is using climate models to predict when epidemics might occur up to three months in advance, giving authorities time to stock up on medicine and warn the public of dangers. It is also using church meetings and local health clinics to educate people in high-altitude areas on how climate change could be leading to the spread of malaria to their area.
In the West Kenyan highlands, where malaria has been present since the late 1980s, programmes have been providing mosquito nets for people to sleep under. DfID has handed out 14 million bed nets since 2001. But because malaria is relatively new here, fewer than half of those who own bed nets use them, DfID said.
The institute’s work is one of 46 projects across Africa supported by the Climate Change Adaptation for Africa programme sponsored by DfID.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, said: “The spread of malaria in the Mount Kenya region is a worrying sign of things to come.”
Climate change increasing malaria risk, research reveals
UK-funded research shows climate change has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya
Press Association guardian.co.uk 31 Dec 09;
Rising temperatures on the slopes of Mount Kenya have put an extra 4 million people at risk of malaria, research funded by the UK government warned today.
Climate change has raised average temperatures in the Central Highlands region of Kenya, allowing the disease to creep into higher altitude areas where the population has little or no immunity.
The findings by a research team funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), showed that seven times more people are contracting the disease in outbreaks in the region than 10 years ago.
The team from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere have been attributed to multiple factors including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change on Mount Kenya is a rise in temperature.
The average temperature in the Central Highlands was 17C in 1989, with malaria completely absent from the region. This is because the parasite which causes malaria can only mature above 18C.
But with temperatures today averaging 19C, mosquitos are carrying the disease into high altitude areas and epidemics have begun to break out among humans.
Kemri is using climate models to predict when epidemics might occur up to three months in advance, giving authorities time to stock up on medicine and warn the public of the dangers.
The institute is also using church meetings and local health clinics to educate people in high-altitude areas on how climate change could be leading to the spread of malaria into their area.
In the west Kenyan highlands, where malaria has been present since the late 1980s, programmes have been providing mosquito nets for people to sleep under - with DfID providing 14m bed nets since 2001.
But because malaria is a relatively new phenomenon, less than half of those who own bed nets use them, DfID said.
In areas where researchers have been encouraging people to use them the incidence of malaria has dropped markedly and epidemics have been all but eradicated.
The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: "The spread of malaria in the Mount Kenya region is a worrying sign of things to come.
"Without strong and urgent action to tackle climate change, malaria could infect areas without any experience of the disease.
"That's why we need to make sure vulnerable, developing nations such as Kenya have the support they need to tackle the potentially devastating impacts of climate change."
