Information on the prevalence, distribution and likely future spread of malaria is vital for a number of reasons: giving affected countries an idea of disease burden, providing a baseline from which to measure the success of intervention programmes, and facilitating effective disease-control planning. In a series of studies, Professor Bob Snow, Dr Simon Hay and colleagues at the Kenya Medical Research Institute–Wellcome Trust Research Programme have developed tools to collect and analyse data on the distribution of malaria in affected regions.

no text

Across the world, malaria scientists collect information on how many people are infected with malaria parasites. This information is sometimes more widely accessible, but not always. To date, such data have never been gathered into a single source and linked to a map of the world. The Malaria Atlas Project has so far assembled information from 3126 communities in 79 countries – the single largest repository of contemporary information of malaria risk yet produced.

To create a global map of malaria risk worldwide, the researchers from Kenya and Oxford use information from satellites orbiting the Earth, population censuses and other electronic forms of information on factors that affect the distribution of malaria mosquito vectors and how often they are likely to infect humans. Statistical approaches will be used to fill in the 'gaps', based on comparisons between areas where information exists and those where it is lacking.

Applications of early versions of these models estimate that, in 2002, 515 million people developed a clinical episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria – many more than previously thought.

Image: Examining a premature baby in Kilifi, Kenya; C Penn

External links

• Hay SI and Snow RW. The Malaria Atlas Project: developing global maps of malaria risk. PLoS Med 2006;3(12):e473.
• Snow RW et al. The global distribution of clinical episodes of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Nature 2005;434(7030):214–7.

In 2005/06 Professor Snow was awarded a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship and Dr Hay a Senior Research Fellowship.