Title: 

"Malaria, Anopheles, Landscapes, and the Human Dwelling: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives"

Abstract:

In response to the Millennium Development Goals of 2000 and in later initiatives, the global community has dedicated itself to elimination of malaria from the human population.  This collective decision begs the question: how to control and eliminate malaria?  In this seminar, research in Kenya and Malawi shows that malaria can be controlled but not eliminated by use of insecticide treated bed nets.  Anopheles vector populations respond to this intervention with adaptive changes in population genetic structure and seem resilient to adequate control.  Landscape analysis reveals that larval habitats of Anopheles vectors can be predicted based upon environmental variables; a "big data" approach with Google Earth Engine generated an Anopheles habitat suitability model that predicts boundaries of Anopheles presence in rural African landscapes. Risk factors for presence of female Anopheles mosquitoes inside houses and for malaria risk in rural householders included proximity to larval habitats, proximity to cultivated agriculture, house structure including open eaves, relative poverty, education level of the head of household, and whether cooking took place inside or outside of the home.  Risk of malaria was linearly related to poverty status as measured by the household wealth index.  These findings and a review of malaria elimination in the rural southern United States suggest that malaria elimination requires primary attention to socioeconomic and environmental conditions, factors requiring attention to poverty and public goods, with insecticidal and biomedical interventions being secondary.