Global warming is predicted to increase the area of the globe affected by malaria...

WWF Climate Change
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Director Adam Markham
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pproximately 270 million people suffer from malaria worldwide and over 2 billion (42%) of the world's population is considered at risk of contracting the disease. Each year 1 to 2 million people die from this mosquito-transmitted disease.

Malaria generally extends only to places where the minimum winter temperature reaches no lower than 16° C. But global warming is predicted to bring warmer winters to many places, therefore increasing malaria transmission at higher latitudes and bringing malaria to higher elevations. Those at risk of infection could increase to an estimated 60% of the world's population. Malaria is already being reported at higher elevations in the mountains of Central Africa as well as Ethiopia and in parts of Asia. Highland urban centers, like Harare, Zimbabwe and Nairobi, Kenya are at increasing risk of major outbreaks, and are largely unprepared to deal with them. In the United States, locally transmitted malaria occurred during particu-larly "hot humid periods" in New Jersey in 1991, and in Queens, New York in 1993. One study suggests that up to 1 million more deaths from malaria could be occurring annually by the 2050s.

M A L A R I A O N T H E M O V E Warmer temperatures could help malaria mosquitoes move northwards and spread the disease to new zones.