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Failure of Malaria Drugs and Pesticides Prompt Scientists to Return to Centuries-Old Agricultural Remedies Consortium Brings Together Health and Agricultural Researchers to Attack Malaria at Its Source |
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The resurgence of
malaria and the rise of more dangerous forms of the disease have led
scientists to recommend a return to common-sense control practices not
widely used in more than half a century. Malaria, which health officials considered defeated in the 1950s and early 1960s, is making a comeback, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 300 million people a year are stricken with the disease, which typically produces high fevers and extreme flu-like symptoms. Children suffer the vast majority of malaria-related deaths, some 1 million last year alone. Malaria’s resurgence, researchers say, is associated in large part with an expansion of irrigated agriculture that provides breeding sites for the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite. "A link between irrigation and malaria has been suspected since the beginning of the last century," says Clifford Mutero a health and water management researcher with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of the 16 Future Harvest food and environmental research centers. A recent study published in Science magazine estimates that the severest form of the disease emerged around 7,000 years ago, placing it at a crossroads with early agriculture. "For as long as people have been irrigating crops and watering livestock they’ve had to contend with the disease," Mutero says. "The link between irrigated tropical agriculture, and malaria is pretty convincing, so it makes sense to try to attack the problem at the source." Common Sense Practices In the 20th century, the building of the Panama Canal was made possible only when health experts began to understand the link between sanitation, the life cycle of the mosquito, and human health. Malaria and yellow fever were brought under control not with drugs or pesticides, Mutero notes, but by controlling the breeding environment of disease-carrying mosquitoes. This type of control, which scientists call environmental management, was largely abandoned with the advent of insecticides such as DDT and drugs that keep malaria in check. Since then, the parasite that causes the disease has largely gained immunity to the drugs, and mosquitoes that spread malaria are now all but immune to ordinary pesticides. "The widespread use of chemicals in the 1950s and 60s," Mutero says, "severed the link that helped farmers pass on common sense malaria control practices to the next generation." Irrigation: a Major Culprit? "After World War II, public health officials believed that malaria could be best controlled with drugs and insecticides, the silver bullets of malaria control," says Eline Boelee, an IWMI irrigation and health researcher. The development of DDT and chloroquine, a widely used malaria drug, led to complacency, she says. At about the same time, developing countries and international aid agencies began investing in large-scale irrigation and agriculture development projects, which set in motion the conditions needed for a resurgence of the disease. "When irrigation schemes open up," says Boelee, "people move in to take advantage of the water. But providing farmers with year-round water also changes the natural ecology, and anytime agriculture expands or intensifies it has an effect on human health," she says. "That is why it is important to focus research on areas where malaria and agriculture connect," Mutero says. "Our aim is to help development agencies plan agricultural activities so that they won’t increase the risk of disease. Right now these links are not well understood." Researchers at the Water Institute believe the best strategy for malaria control is a combination of good environmental management practices, sound government policy, and active involvement by local communities. "There are lots of ways to control malaria that don’t involve spraying pesticides or developing new vaccines," Boelee adds. "Fitting mosquito-proof screens on houses, using cows or other warm blooded animals as decoys, and promoting the use of bed nets can help people to avoid infection," she says. In China, rice farmers combat mosquitoes by periodically letting the water run dry in their rice paddies and then refilling them as the crop matures. This denies mosquitoes the standing water they need to mature and breed. Boelee believes that increasing levels of nutrition can also help to defeat malaria. "People who eat a more balanced diet," she says, "are better equipped to fight off disease". New Consortium—SIMA "There are lots of ideas about how to control malaria. What we’ve needed is a way to organize the bits and pieces," says Mutero. To achieve that goal, the Future Harvest Centers recently agreed to form a research consortium that will bring together scientists working in agriculture, health, and public policy. The consortium, known as the Systemwide Initiative on Malaria and Agriculture, or SIMA, is a partnership between international and national organizations working in malaria and agriculture. In addition to Future Harvest Centers, the partners include a variety of UN agencies, the Kenya-based International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, and the Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory. In addition to IWMI, Future Harvest Center stakeholders include the International Food Policy Research Institute, The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, the West Africa Rice Development Association , the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry. The Future Harvest Centers, Mutero says, will contribute scientific expertise on the food production and environment, as well as dozens of well-organized research sites where field studies can be conducted in different agro-environments. The Initiative, he says, will focus first on projects aimed at developing a set of best practices to reduce malaria infection around small rainwater harvesting reservoirs and large-scale irrigation systems. "Right now hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on developing a vaccine and on social marketing programs aimed at getting people to purchase bed nets," Mutero says. "Not much is being done to control the problem at the source." Until an effective vaccine is available, traditional approaches such as the use of repellent plants, animal decoys, and common-sense irrigation management are likely to provide better results at a lower price," he adds. The SIMA initiative will cost an estimated US$20 million over the next six years and will be coordinated from a secretariat based at the IWMI office in Nairobi. ### For more information about SIMA contact: s.carriger@cgiar.org or m.devlin@cgiar.org The International Water Management Institute is a scientific research organization working to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods, and nature. IWMI works with partners in developing countries to develop tools and methods to help eradicate poverty through more effective management of water and land resources. IWMI's work brings together hydrologists, agronomists, economists, social scientists, environmental researchers, and health experts on multidisciplinary research projects. It is the only organization of its kind that is fully dedicated to providing the scientific basis necessary to help developing countries reduce poverty through more effective management of their water and land resources.http://www.iwmi.org/ Future Harvest (http://www.futureharvest.org/) is a global nonprofit organization that builds awareness and support for food and environmental research for a world with less poverty, a healthier human family, well-nourished children, and a better environment. Future Harvest supports research, promotes partnerships, and sponsors projects that bring the results of research to rural communities, farmers, and families in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Future Harvest is an initiative of the 16 food and environmental research centers that are primarily funded through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (http://www.cgiar.org/). |
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