Web-based climate information resources for malaria control in Africa

Malaria remains a major public health threat to the African continent and its control is critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in this region. The recently published Global Strategic Plan for Roll Back Malaria 2005–2015 has stated that "Six out of eight Millennium Development Goals can only be reached with effective malaria control in place" [1]. The greatest burden of malaria in Africa is born by populations in regions where the disease pathogen is perennially present in the community. In these regions, the environment is conducive to interactions between the Anopheles mosquito, malaria parasites and human hosts because they contain surface water in which mosquitoes can lay their eggs, humid conditions which facilitate adult mosquito life spans of adequate length, and relative warmth which allows both the mosquito and the malaria parasite to develop rapidly. In addition, housing quality is generally poor and offers little protection from human-mosquito interaction. Those most vulnerable to endemic malaria are young children (<5 years of age) who have yet to acquire disease immunity, pregnant women, whose immunity is reduced, and non-immune migrants or travelers.Epidemic malaria tends to occur along the geographical margins of the endemic regions, when the conditions supporting the equilibrium between the human, parasite and mosquito vector populations are disturbed. This leads to a sharp but temporary increase in disease incidence. More than 124 million Africans live in such areas and experience epidemics causing around 12 million malaria episodes and up to 310,000 deaths annually [2]. In these regions, an individual's exposure to malaria is infrequent and, therefore, little acquired immunity to this life threatening disease is developed. All age groups are, therefore, vulnerable to epidemic malaria [3]. The development of an online product that supports epidemic risk monitoring has been previously reported [4].While economic development has played