Malaria is a parasitic disease that occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. About 500 million cases of malaria occur every year, and one million people, mostly children living in sub-Saharan Africa, die as a result. The parasite mainly responsible for these deaths-Plasmodium falciparum, is transmitted to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes.
Based on the findings of the Malaria Atlas Project, led by Kenyan and British researchers, 2.37 billion people (mostly in Africa and Asia) are at risk of contracting the malaria parasite. But the study cites, "almost one billion of these people are in areas where the risk of infection is extremely low."
Researchers said the findings show "elimination is epidemiologically feasible, and large areas of Africa are more amenable to control than appreciated previously," which means that malaria could be more precisely targeted.
"We were very surprised to find a significant number of people were facing a much lower risk than was previously thought. Of course, this does not mean that malaria is any less of a problem, but it gives us hope that eliminating the disease from certain regions may be achievable using simple methods such as insecticide-treated bed nets," Simon Hay from the University of Oxford said.
