Global consumption and international trade in deforestation-associated commodities could influence malaria risk

Distribution of Anophelinae (Diptera: Culicidae) and challenges for malaria elimination in Brazil

In 1909, Arthur Neiva published an article titled "Contribuição para os estudos dos dipteros. Observação sobre a biolojia e sistematica das anofelinas brasileiras e suas relações com o impaludismo", highlighting the biology, ecology, and distribution of Anophelinae mosquitoes and the need for more taxonomic studies in Brazil. This came 11 years after Ronald Ross and Grassi demonstrated mosquito roles in transmitting Plasmodium to birds and humans. Despite considerable advances in the understanding of Anophelinae species, knowledge remains insufficient given the complexity of Brazil's ecosystems, the intensified anthropogenic environmental changes since the mid-20th century, and the persistent public health challenges posed by malaria. This perspective article presents the distribution of Plasmodium vectors and potential vector species in Brazil using climate variables and a maximum entropy model. Geographical distribution maps of Anophelinae species, including putative species, are provided. The article also discusses the current knowledge of vector species distribution in relation to Brazil's malaria elimination plan, along with the ecological and anthropogenic factors influencing vector distribution.

Interbasin trade worsens the state of freshwater fish biodiversity in China

Human economic activities severely threaten freshwater fish biodiversity in different river basins. Trade makes the impact more mysterious and complex and confounds local efforts to protect freshwater biodiversity. To investigate the relationship between trade and freshwater fishes, we developed a river-basin economic transaction model that is applied to mainland China, home to 9% of the world's freshwater fish species. Here, we show that interbasin trade induced by final demand contributes 74% of the threats to China's freshwater fish biodiversity. Economically developed river basins (e.g., the Huaihe River) are the main beneficiaries of interbasin trade at the cost of biodiversity deterioration in economically underdeveloped river basins (e.g., the upper Pearl River), especially when trade occurs between distant basins. Our findings highlight the significance of the shift in governance from administrative divisions to river basins and control measures in different stages of economic supply chains to mitigate freshwater fish biodiversity threats.

Bat-associated microbes: Opportunities and perils, an overview

The potential biotechnological uses of bat-associated bacteria are discussed briefly, indicating avenues for biotechnological applications of bat-associated microbes. The uniqueness of bats in terms of their lifestyle, genomes and molecular immunology may predispose bats to act as disease reservoirs. Molecular phylogenetic analysis has shown several instances of bats harbouring the ancestral lineages of bacterial (Bartonella), protozoal (Plasmodium, Trypanosoma cruzi) and viral (SARS-CoV2) pathogens infecting humans. Along with the transmission of viruses from bats, we also discuss the potential roles of bat-associated bacteria, fungi, and protozoan parasites in emerging diseases. Current evidence suggests that environmental changes and interactions between wildlife, livestock, and humans contribute to the spill-over of infectious agents from bats to other hosts. Domestic animals including livestock may act as intermediate amplifying hosts for bat-origin pathogens to transmit to humans. An increasing number of studies investigating bat pathogen diversity and infection dynamics have been published. However, whether or how these infectious agents are transmitted both within bat populations and to other hosts, including humans, often remains unknown. Metagenomic approaches are uncovering the dynamics and distribution of potential pathogens in bat microbiomes, which might improve the understanding of disease emergence and transmission. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on bat zoonoses of public health concern and flag the gaps in the knowledge to enable further research and allocation of resources for tackling future outbreaks.

Assessment of malaria risk in Southeast Asia: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Several countries in Southeast Asia are nearing malaria elimination, yet eradication remains elusive. This is largely due to the challenge of focusing elimination efforts, an area where risk prediction can play an essential supporting role. Despite its importance, there is no standard numerical method to quantify the risk of malaria infection. Thus, there is a need for a consolidated view of existing definitions of risk and factors considered in assessing risk to analyse the merits of risk prediction models. This systematic review examines studies of the risk of malaria in Southeast Asia with regard to their suitability in addressing the challenges of malaria elimination in low transmission areas.

METHODS

A search of four electronic databases over 2010-2020 retrieved 1297 articles, of which 25 met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In each study, examined factors included the definition of the risk and indicators of malaria transmission used, the environmental and climatic factors associated with the risk, the statistical models used, the spatial and temporal granularity, and how the relationship between environment, climate, and risk is quantified.

RESULTS

This review found variation in the definition of risk used, as well as the environmental and climatic factors in the reviewed articles. GLM was widely adopted as the analysis technique relating environmental and climatic factors to malaria risk. Most of the studies were carried out in either a cross-sectional design or case-control studies, and most utilized the odds ratio to report the relationship between exposure to risk and malaria prevalence.

CONCLUSIONS

Adopting a standardized definition of malaria risk would help in comparing and sharing results, as would a clear description of the definition and method of collection of the environmental and climatic variables used. Further issues that need to be more fully addressed include detection of asymptomatic cases and considerations of human mobility. Many of the findings of this study are applicable to other low-transmission settings and could serve as a guideline for further studies of malaria in other regions.

Entomological Reference Collection: 85 years of contributions to public health

The Department of Hygiene of the Faculty of Medicine of São Paulo (FMUSP), organized with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, became the Institute of Hygiene, with the inaugural class taught by Samuel Darling in 1918. The history of Public Health Entomology is mixed with that of the Institute itself, which became the Faculty of Hygiene and Public Health in 1945. Still in the 1930s, Paulo César de Azevedo Antunes and John Lane organized Public Health Entomology within the Medical Parasitology area of the then Institute of Hygiene. During this period, the entomology laboratory came to be recognized for its research in the systematics of hematophagous insects, as well as in the ecology, biology and behavior of vectors. The Entomological Reference Collection (CER) originated naturally from the research of Paulo César Antunes and John Lane and is a national and international heritage covering primary and secondary types of insect species that are of interest to public health. Over the years, it has been consolidated with the efforts of Augusto Ayroza Galvão, Renato Corrêa, José Coutinho, Nelson Cerqueira, Ernesto Rabello, Oswaldo Forattini and others. In its over eighty years of activities, CER has enabled the training of several scientists able to act in programs of surveillance and control of endemic diseases associated with insect vectors throughout Latin America, in addition to training taxonomists focused on insects of interest in Public Health. Researchers from other Brazilian institutes and abroad joined the entomology laboratory because of its importance and the research developed in it. The growing scientific production made it possible for entomological studies developed at the Faculty of Public Health (FSP) to gain international visibility, contributing to the development of disease prevention and epidemic control actions in the country.

A Systematic Review on the Viruses of Anopheles Mosquitoes: The Potential Importance for Public Health

Anopheles mosquitoes are the vectors of Plasmodium, the etiological agent of malaria. In addition, Anopheles funestus and Anopheles gambiae are the main vectors of the O'nyong-nyong virus. However, research on the viruses carried by Anopheles is scarce; thus, the possible transmission of viruses by Anopheles is still unexplored. This systematic review was carried out to identify studies that report viruses in natural populations of Anopheles or virus infection and transmission in laboratory-reared mosquitoes. The databases reviewed were EBSCO-Host, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus and PubMed. After the identification and screening of candidate articles, a total of 203 original studies were included that reported on a variety of viruses detected in Anopheles natural populations. In total, 161 viruses in 54 species from 41 countries worldwide were registered. In laboratory studies, 28 viruses in 15 Anopheles species were evaluated for mosquito viral transmission capacity or viral infection. The viruses reported in Anopheles encompassed 25 viral families and included arboviruses, probable arboviruses and Insect-Specific Viruses (ISVs). Insights after performing this review include the need for (1) a better understanding of Anopheles-viral interactions, (2) characterizing the Anopheles virome-considering the public health importance of the viruses potentially transmitted by Anopheles and the significance of finding viruses with biological control activity-and (3) performing virological surveillance in natural populations of Anopheles, especially in the current context of environmental modifications that may potentiate the expansion of the Anopheles species distribution.

Africa and climate justice at COP27 and beyond: impacts and solutions through an interdisciplinary lens

Climate justice is not just a financial transaction to protect the environment. It needs to be seen as the protection of the most vulnerable in society after centuries of resource exploitation. African countries disproportionately face impacts of climate change on their environments, their economies, their resources and their infrastructure. This leads to greater vulnerability and increased exposure to the negative effects of a changing climate. In this article, we highlight the importance of climate justice and its role within the United Nations negotiations, and ultimately in concrete action. We discuss current climate impacts across key sectors in the African region, with a focus on health, infrastructure, food and water scarcity, energy and finance. All sectors are affected by climate change. They are interconnected and under threat. This triggers a ripple effect, where threats in one sector have a knock-on effect on other sectors. We find that the current set of intergovernmental institutions have failed to adequately address climate justice. We also contend that a siloed approach to climate action has proven to be ineffective. As we head towards the next set of negotiations (COP27), this paper argues that the economic and social conditions in Africa can be addressed through financial and collaborative support for adaptation and localised solutions, but that this will only be achieved if climate justice is prioritised by the decision makers. This needs to include a global-scale transition in how climate finance is assessed and accessed. Climate justice underpins real, effective and sustainable solutions for climate action in Africa.

Impact of International Trade on the Carbon Intensity of Human Well-Being

There has been a longstanding debate about the impact of international trade on the environment and human well-being, yet there is little known about such environment and human well-being trade-off. Here, we explore the effect of international trade on the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) globally under the current global trade system and a hypothetical no-trade scenario. We found that between 1995 and 2015, CIWB of 41% of countries declined and 59% of countries increased, caused by international trade, and this resulted in a reduction of the global CIWB and a decline in CIWB inequality between countries. International trade decreased CIWB for high- and upper-middle-income countries and increased CIWB for lower- and middle-income countries. In addition, our results also show that decreases in emission intensity are the most important driver of lower CIWB and the percentage contribution of emission intensity to the improvement in CIWB increases with income. The reduction of emission intensity, population growth, and increase in life expectancy all contribute to CIWB reduction, while the consumption level is the primary factor driving CIWB growth. Our results underscore the importance of studying the impact of international trade on the CIWB of countries at different stages of development.

Malaria in Angola: recent progress, challenges and future opportunities using parasite demography studies

Over the past two decades, a considerable expansion of malaria interventions has occurred at the national level in Angola, together with cross-border initiatives and regional efforts in southern Africa. Currently, Angola aims to consolidate malaria control and to accelerate the transition from control to pre-elimination, along with other country members of the Elimination 8 initiative. However, the tremendous heterogeneity in malaria prevalence among Angolan provinces, as well as internal population movements and migration across borders, represent major challenges for the Angolan National Malaria Control Programme. This review aims to contribute to the understanding of factors underlying the complex malaria situation in Angola and to encourage future research studies on transmission dynamics and population structure of Plasmodium falciparum, important areas to complement host epidemiological information and to help reenergize the goal of malaria elimination in the country.

Biochemical characteristics of patients with imported malaria

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the clinical and biochemical profiles of patients with imported malaria infection between 1 January 2011 and 30 April 2022 and admitted to the Fourth People’s Hospital of Nanning.

Methods

This cohort study enrolled 170 patients with conformed imported malaria infection. The clinical and biochemical profiles of these participants were analyzed with malaria parasite clearance, and signs and symptoms related to malaria disappearance were defined as the primary outcome. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to evaluate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for cerebral malaria. The Cox model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs for parasite clearance.

Results

Adenosine deaminase and parasitemia were found to be independent risk factors for severe malaria in patients with imported malaria (OR = 1.0088, 95% CI: 1.0010–1.0167, p = 0.0272 and OR = 2.0700, 95% CI: 1.2584–3.4050, p = 0.0042, respectively). A 0.5–standard deviation (SD) increase of variation for urea (HR = 0.6714, 95% CI: 0.4911–0.9180), a 0.5-SD increase of variation for creatinine (HR = 0.4566, 95% CI: 0.2762–0.7548), a 0.25-SD increase of variation for albumin (HR = 0.4947, 95% CI: 0.3197–0.7653), a 0.25-SD increase of variation for hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HR = 0.6129, 95% CI: 0.3995–0.9402), and a 1.0-SD increase of variation for ferritin (HR = 0.5887, 95% CI: 0.3799–0.9125) were associated with a higher risk for increased parasite clearance duration than a low-level change.

Conclusions

Aspartate aminotransferase, urea, creatinine, albumin, hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, and ferritin are useful biochemical indicators in routine clinical practice to evaluate prognosis for imported malaria.

Phylogenetic Diversity of Animal Oral and Gastrointestinal Viromes Useful in Surveillance of Zoonoses

Great emphasis has been placed on bacterial microbiomes in human and animal systems. In recent years, advances in metagenomics have allowed for the detection and characterization of more and more native viral particles also residing in these organisms. The digestive tracts of animals and humans—from the oral cavity, to the gut, to fecal excretions—have become one such area of interest. Next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic analyses have uncovered vast phylogenetic virome diversity in companion animals, such as dogs and cats, as well as farm animals and wildlife such as bats. Zoonotic and arthropod-borne illnesses remain major causes of worldwide outbreaks, as demonstrated by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. This highlights the increasing need to identify and study animal viromes to prevent such disastrous cross-species transmission outbreaks in the coming years. Novel viruses have been uncovered in the viromes of multiple organisms, including birds, bats, cats, and dogs. Although the exact consequences for public health have not yet become clear, many analyses have revealed viromes dominated by RNA viruses, which can be the most problematic to human health, as these genomes are known for their high mutation rates and immune system evasion capabilities. Furthermore, in the wake of worldwide disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is evident that proper surveillance of viral biodiversity is crucial. For instance, gut viral metagenomic analysis in dogs has shown close relationships between the highly abundant canine coronavirus and human coronavirus strains 229E and NL63. Future studies and vigilance could potentially save many lives.

Averting wildlife-borne infectious disease epidemics requires a focus on socio-ecological drivers and a redesign of the global food system

A debate has emerged over the potential socio-ecological drivers of wildlife-origin zoonotic disease outbreaks and emerging infectious disease (EID) events. This Review explores the extent to which the incidence of wildlife-origin infectious disease outbreaks, which are likely to include devastating pandemics like HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, may be linked to excessive and increasing rates of tropical deforestation for agricultural food production and wild meat hunting and trade, which are further related to contemporary ecological crises such as global warming and mass species extinction. Here we explore a set of precautionary responses to wildlife-origin zoonosis threat, including: (a) limiting human encroachment into tropical wildlands by promoting a global transition to diets low in livestock source foods; (b) containing tropical wild meat hunting and trade by curbing urban wild meat demand, while securing access for indigenous people and local communities in remote subsistence areas; and (c) improving biosecurity and other strategies to break zoonosis transmission pathways at the wildlife-human interface and along animal source food supply chains.

Exploring agricultural land-use and childhood malaria associations in sub-Saharan Africa

Agriculture in Africa is rapidly expanding but with this comes potential disbenefits for the environment and human health. Here, we retrospectively assess whether childhood malaria in sub-Saharan Africa varies across differing agricultural land uses after controlling for socio-economic and environmental confounders. Using a multi-model inference hierarchical modelling framework, we found that rainfed cropland was associated with increased malaria in rural (OR 1.10, CI 1.03-1.18) but not urban areas, while irrigated or post flooding cropland was associated with malaria in urban (OR 1.09, CI 1.00-1.18) but not rural areas. In contrast, although malaria was associated with complete forest cover (OR 1.35, CI 1.24-1.47), the presence of natural vegetation in agricultural lands potentially reduces the odds of malaria depending on rural-urban context. In contrast, no associations with malaria were observed for natural vegetation interspersed with cropland (veg-dominant mosaic). Agricultural expansion through rainfed or irrigated cropland may increase childhood malaria in rural or urban contexts in sub-Saharan Africa but retaining some natural vegetation within croplands could help mitigate this risk and provide environmental co-benefits.

THE ZOONOTIC CITY: Urban Political Ecology and the Pandemic Imaginary

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic this article takes a longer view of the evolving relationship between urbanization and the range of zoonotic diseases that have spread from animals to humans. I suggest that the existing interpretation of epidemiological transitions remains overly Eurocentric and requires a more nuanced conception of global environmental history. Similarly, the conceptualization of urban space within these teleological schemas has relied on a narrow range of examples and has failed to fully engage with networked dimensions to urbanization. At an analytical level I consider the potential for extending the conceptual framework offered by urban political ecology to take greater account of the epidemiological dimensions to contemporary urbanization and its associated pandemic imaginary. I examine how contemporary health threats intersect with complex patterns of environmental change, including the destruction of biodiversity (and trade in live animals), the co-evolutionary dynamics of viruses and other pathogens, and wider dimensions to the global technosphere, including food production, infrastructure networks, and the shifting topographies of peri- or ex-urban contact zones.

Bird Assemblages in Coffee Agroforestry Systems and Other Human Modified Habitats in Indonesia

Simple Summary

Given the high degree of deforestation in the tropics due to shifting agriculture, it is a priority for conservation to find sustainable agriculture systems. We assessed bird communities over 1228 plots from 21 sites in the highly populated island of Java, Indonesia. We found that commercial coffee polycultures (i.e., fields comprised of coffee plants, other crops and/or fruit trees, and diverse shade trees) could sustain similar levels of bird abundance, diversity, and richness than coffee systems under natural forests and community managed forests. Commercial coffee polyculture fields host higher bird abundance, diversity, and richness than sun-exposed coffee fields, fields with other crops or fruit trees, and tree farms. We provide evidence that complex commercial agroforestry systems can host similar levels of biodiversity to agroforestry systems under natural forest.

Abstract

Deforestation in the tropics is mainly driven by the need to expand agriculture and forestry land. Tropical cropland has also undergone a process of intensification, particularly evident in regions that are the main exporters of deforestation-driven commodities. Around 25 million people in the world depend on coffee production, which has a profound contribution to global biodiversity loss through agricultural extensification and intensification. Nevertheless, coffee agroforestry systems have been postulated to serve as an alternative refuge for biodiversity across different regions. We aim to compare bird abundance, diversity, and richness in commercial polyculture coffee systems (i.e., the highest degree of habitat complexity that can be achieved in coffee fields after deforestation) with other coffee agroforestry systems and human modified habitats in Java, Indonesia. We collected data in 21 sites (1228 points) on Java from February to August 2021 using the point sampling method. Via generalised additive models, we tested whether the abundance, diversity, and richness of birds were different between different human modified habitats including other potential predictors such as elevation, distance to protected areas, shade tree richness, and plant diversity. Using the non-metric multidimensional scaling, we tested whether there was a difference in terms of the composition of foraging guilds between habitats. Commercial polyculture coffee fields can sustain levels of bird abundance, diversity, and richness comparable to agroforestry systems under natural forest, and higher than sun coffee and shaded monoculture coffee, and of other human modified habitats such as crop/fruit fields and tree farms. Coffee agroforestry systems have a higher proportion of nectarivores, insectivores, and frugivores than other systems that can sustain high diversity and richness of birds such as paddy fields that mainly have granivores and carnivores. Complex polycultures can represent an avenue for the future of sustainable agriculture in conditions where deforestation rates are high and in crops such as coffee, which maintain high yield in the presence of diverse shade.

Understanding Malaria Persistence: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Effectiveness of Malaria Elimination Strategies in South-Central Vietnam

Despite the scale-up of vector control, diagnosis and treatment, and health information campaigns, malaria persists in the forested areas of South-Central Vietnam, home to ethnic minority populations. A mixed-methods study using an exploratory sequential design was conducted in 10 Ra-glai villages in Bac Ai district of Ninh Thuan province to examine which social factors limited the effectiveness of the national malaria elimination strategy in the local setting. Territorial arrangements and mobility were found to directly limit the effectiveness of indoor residual spraying and long-lasting insectidical treated nets (LLINs). Households (n=410) were resettled in the “new villages” by the government, where they received brick houses (87.1%) and sufficient LLINs (97.3%). However, 97.6% of households went back to their “old villages” to continue slash-and-burn agriculture. In the old village, 48.5% of households lived in open-structured plot huts and only 5.7% of them had sufficient LLIN coverage. Household representatives believed malaria could be cured with antimalarials (57.8%), but also perceived non-malarial medicines, rituals, and vitamin supplements to be effective against malaria. Household members (n = 1,957) used public health services for their most recent illness (62.9%), but also reported to buy low-cost medicines from the private sector to treat fevers and discomfort as these were perceived to be the most cost-effective treatment option for slash-and-burn farmers. The study shows the relevance of understanding social factors to improve the uptake of public health interventions and calls for contextually adapted strategies for malaria elimination in ethnic minority populations in Vietnam and similar settings.

Surveillance Studies Reveal Diverse and Potentially Pathogenic-Incriminated Vector Mosquito Species across Major Botswana Touristic Hotspots

Vector mosquitoes contribute significantly to the global burden of diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife. As such, the spatial distribution and abundance of mosquito species and their surveillance cannot be ignored. Here, we surveyed mosquito species across major tourism hotspots in semi-arid Botswana, including, for the first time, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Our results reported several mosquito species across seven genera, belonging to Aedes, Anopheles, Culex, Mansonia, Mimomyia, Coquillettidia and Uranotaenia. These results document a significant species inventory that may inform early warning vector-borne disease control systems and likely help manage the risk of emerging and re-emerging mosquito-borne infections.

In search of the last malaria cases: ethnographic methods for community and private-sector engagement in malaria elimination in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

Background

Despite significant strides made in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in the Greater Mekong Subregion, malaria transmission continues amongst the most ‘hard-to-reach’, such as forest-goers and mobile and migrant populations, who face access obstacles to malaria diagnosis and treatment. As such, regional malaria elimination strategies endeavour to incorporate the private sector and local communities in improving surveillance and detection of the last malaria cases in remote forested areas. The question remains, however, whether such strategies can reach these hard-to-reach populations and effectively reduce their disproportionate burden of malaria. This paper evaluates the strategy of community and private sector engagement in a malaria elimination project in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Methods

Ethnographic research, incorporating in-depth interviews, participant observations with informal discussions, and group discussions were conducted in Bu Gia Map commune, Binh Phuc province of Vietnam; in Phouvong district, Attapeu province of Laos; and, in nine newly established and informal communities in the provinces of Mondul Kiri, Steung Treng, Kratie, Kampong Thom, and Prah Vihear of Cambodia.

Results

Different types of factors limited or enhanced the effectiveness of the participatory approaches in the different settings. In Vietnam, inter-ethnic tensions and sensitivity around forest-work negatively affected local population’s health-seeking behaviour and consequent uptake of malaria testing and treatment. In Laos, the location of the project collaborative pharmacies in the district-centre were a mismatch for reaching hard-to-reach populations in remote villages. In Cambodia, the strategy of recruiting community malaria-workers, elected by the community members, did manage to reach the remote forested areas where people visited or stayed.

Conclusions

‘Hard-to-reach’ populations remain hard to reach without proper research identifying the socio-economic-political environment and the key dynamics determining uptake in involved communities and populations. Solid implementation research with a strong ethnographic component is required to tailor malaria elimination strategies to local contexts.

Reemergence of Yellow Fever in Brazil: The Role of Distinct Landscape Fragmentation Thresholds

Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) reemergence in Brazil was followed by human suffering and the loss of biodiversity of neotropical simians on the Atlantic coast. The underlying mechanisms were investigated with special focus on distinct landscape fragmentation thresholds in the affected municipalities. An ecological study in epidemiology is employed to assess the statistical relationship between events of YFV and forest fragmentation in municipal landscapes. Negative binomial regression model showed that highly fragmented forest cover was associated with an 85% increase of events of YFV in humans and simians (RR = 1.85, CI 95% = 1.24–2.75, p=0.003) adjusted by vaccine coverage, population size, and municipality area. Intermediate levels of forest cover combined with higher levels of forest edge densities contribute to the YFV dispersion and the exponential growth of YF cases. Strategies for forest conservation are necessary for the control and prevention of YF and other zoonotic diseases that can spillover from the fragmented forest remains to populated cities of the Brazilian Atlantic coast.

The influence of ecosystems services depletion to climate change adaptation efforts in Africa

Climate change is one of the major challenges societies round the world face at present. Apart from efforts to achieve a reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases so as to mitigate the problem, there is a perceived need for adaptation initiatives urgently. Ecosystems are known to play an important role in climate change adaptation processes, since some of the services they provide, may reduce the impacts of extreme events and disturbance, such as wildfires, floods, and droughts. This role is especially important in regions vulnerable to climate change such as the African continent, whose adaptation capacity is limited by many geographic and socio-economic constraints. In Africa, interventions aimed at enhancing ecosystem services may play a key role in supporting climate change adaptation efforts. In order to shed some light on this aspect, this paper reviews the role of ecosystems services and investigates how they are being influenced by climate change in Africa. It contains a set of case studies from a sample of African countries, which serve the purpose to demonstrate the damages incurred, and how such damages disrupt ecosystem services. Based on the data gathered, some measures which may assist in fostering the cause of ecosystems services are listed, so as to cater for a better protection of some of the endangered Africa ecosystems, and the services they provide.

Water, energy, and carbon dioxide footprints of the construction sector: A case study on developed and developing economies

Buildings and construction are major driver of anthropogenic environmental effects. While energy use and CO₂ emissions of buildings and construction have been quantified, their water footprint remains understudied from an economy-wide perspective. We use environmentally-extended multi-regional input-output analysis to quantify the water, energy and carbon (dioxide) footprints associated with the construction sector of India, Italy, South Africa, and the UK, disaggregating the supply chains driving these environmental effects by using structural path analysis. Comparisons are made in terms of contributions by country, by sector, by stage of the supply chain and in terms of actual supply chain pathways. Results show that Italy and the UK have more disaggregated and international supply chains compared to India and South Africa. Total (i.e. direct + indirect) water footprints of construction sectors vary from 11.8 to 14.8 L/USD for all countries, except India at 78.1 L/USD. There was no notable correlation between water and energy and carbon dioxide footprints in terms of sectoral contributions, even if the latter two are correlated. More developed economies exhibit a higher share of international WF than developing economies. The current focus on energy and carbon dioxide footprints might therefore miss out on significant water impacts caused by construction activities, globally.

Malaria transmission in landscapes with varying deforestation levels and timelines in the Amazon: a longitudinal spatiotemporal study

The relationship between deforestation and malaria is a spatiotemporal process of variation in Plasmodium incidence in human-dominated Amazonian rural environments. The present study aimed to assess the underlying mechanisms of malarial exposure risk at a fine scale in 5-km2 sites across the Brazilian Amazon, using field-collected data with a longitudinal spatiotemporally structured approach. Anopheline mosquitoes were sampled from 80 sites to investigate the Plasmodium infection rate in mosquito communities and to estimate the malaria exposure risk in rural landscapes. The remaining amount of forest cover (accumulated deforestation) and the deforestation timeline were estimated in each site to represent the main parameters of both the frontier malaria hypothesis and an alternate scenario, the deforestation-malaria hypothesis, proposed herein. The maximum frequency of pathogenic sites occurred at the intermediate forest cover level (50% of accumulated deforestation) at two temporal deforestation peaks, e.g., 10 and 35 years after the beginning of the organization of a settlement. The incidence density of infected anophelines in sites where the original forest cover decreased by more than 50% in the first 25 years of settlement development was at least twice as high as the incidence density calculated for the other sites studied (adjusted incidence density ratio = 2.25; 95% CI, 1.38-3.68; p = 0.001). The results of this study support the frontier malaria as a unifying hypothesis for explaining malaria emergence and for designing specific control interventions in the Brazilian Amazon.

Vector-Focused Approaches to Curb Malaria Transmission in the Brazilian Amazon: An Overview of Current and Future Challenges and Strategies

In Brazil, malaria transmission is mostly confined to the Amazon, where substantial progress has been made towards disease control in the past decade. Vector control has been historically considered a fundamental part of the main malaria control programs implemented in Brazil. However, the conventional vector-control tools have been insufficient to control or eliminate local vector populations due to the complexity of the Amazonian rainforest environment and ecological features of malaria vector species in the Amazon, especially Anopheles darlingi. Malaria elimination in Brazil and worldwide eradication will require a combination of conventional and new approaches that takes into account the regional specificities of vector populations and malaria transmission dynamics. Here we present an overview on both conventional and novel promising vector-focused tools to curb malaria transmission in the Brazilian Amazon. If well designed and employed, vector-based approaches may improve the implementation of malaria-control programs, particularly in remote or difficult-to-access areas and in regions where existing interventions have been unable to eliminate disease transmission. However, much effort still has to be put into research expanding the knowledge of neotropical malaria vectors to set the steppingstones for the optimization of conventional and development of innovative vector-control tools.

Pandemics and the future of human-landscape interactions

Pandemics have accelerated in frequency in recent decades, with COVID-19 the latest to join the list. Emerging in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, the virus has spread quickly through the world, affecting billions of people through quarantine, and at the same time claiming more than 800,000 lives worldwide. While early reflections from the academic community have tended to target the microbiology, medicine, and animal science communities, this article articulates a viewpoint from a perspective of human interactions with Earth systems. We highlight the link between rising pandemics and accelerating global human impacts on Earth, thereby suggesting that pandemics may be an emerging element of the “Anthropocene.” Examples from Denver, Colorado, USA, show how policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic changed human-environment interactions and created anomalous landscapes at the local scale, in relation to the quality of air and patterns of acquiring and consuming food. In recognizing the significance of novel infectious diseases as part of understanding human-landscape interactions in the Anthropocene, as well as the multi-scale interconnectedness between environment and health, this viewpoint converges toward an urgent need for new paradigms for research and teaching. The program required extends well beyond the already broad interdisciplinary scholarship essential for addressing human-landscape interactions, by integrating the work of health scientists, disease specialists, immunologists, virologists, veterinarians, behavioral scientists, and health policy experts.

Integrating Biomedical, Ecological, and Sustainability Sciences to Manage Emerging Infectious Diseases

Globalization accelerates the mobilization of microorganisms via international trade and transport. Growth in population, increasing connectivity, and rapid urbanization all exacerbate the consequent risk of pandemics of zoonotic diseases. Global problems require global solutions, particularly the co-ordination of international research in biomedical sciences, global ecology, and sustainability.

The environmental footprint of health care: a global assessment

BACKGROUND

Health-care services are necessary for sustaining and improving human wellbeing, yet they have an environmental footprint that contributes to environment-related threats to human health. Previous studies have quantified the carbon emissions resulting from health care at a global level. We aimed to provide a global assessment of the wide-ranging environmental impacts of this sector.

METHODS

In this multiregional input-output analysis, we evaluated the contribution of health-care sectors in driving environmental damage that in turn puts human health at risk. Using a global supply-chain database containing detailed information on health-care sectors, we quantified the direct and indirect supply-chain environmental damage driven by the demand for health care. We focused on seven environmental stressors with known adverse feedback cycles: greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter, air pollutants (nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide), malaria risk, reactive nitrogen in water, and scarce water use.

FINDINGS

Health care causes global environmental impacts that, depending on which indicator is considered, range between 1% and 5% of total global impacts, and are more than 5% for some national impacts.

INTERPRETATION

Enhancing health-care expenditure to mitigate negative health effects of environmental damage is often promoted by health-care practitioners. However, global supply chains that feed into the enhanced activity of health-care sectors in turn initiate adverse feedback cycles by increasing the environmental impact of health care, thus counteracting the mission of health care.

FUNDING

Australian Research Council, National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project.