INTEGRATING SOCIOECONOMIC, CLIMATIC AND HEALTH DATA TO COMBAT MALÁRIA

Malaria is still a major public health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to increase global efforts to prevent disease to save lives. According to a WHO report released in 2016, reported cases and malaria deaths in the world decreased by 41% and 62%, respectively, between 2000 and 2015. The agency estimates that revised figures from this report may show that 6.8 million lives were saved because of medications, treatments and mosquito nets. The WHO global malaria strategy between 2016 and 2030 results in a reduction of at least 90% in malaria cases in 35 countries. The plan also wants to prevent the reintroduction of malaria in all countries considered to be free of the disease. But despite advances made so far, the disease remains a major threat to public health.

This disease still has high incidence rates in Brazil, especially in the Amazon region, where environmental conditions favor mosquito proliferation. In order to eradicate it, the Brazilian government created, through Law 4.709, of September 6, 1965, the Malaria Eradication Campaign (CEM), based on the intradomiciliar action of the application of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) against transmitting anopheles. This action was able to eliminate Malaria from extensive areas of the Brazilian territory, except for the Amazon, where the same procedure could not be applied. Today, 99% of reported malaria cases are found in the Amazon Region.