Correlation between Deforestation and Malaria Disease

Introduction

There has been massive upsurge on the number of diseases in the last 50 years, which believed to be caused by human invasion to the forest or wild animal habitat. Deforestation in the tropical forest believed to be the opening gate between human contact and those wild nature population. Thus, through the zoonotic pathogen, infectious diseases spread from animal to human, that increase the possibility of zoonotic diseases (Yuliardi, 2020).

This article aims to explain correlation between deforestation as environmental issue and the spread of infectious diseases based on literature review, using descriptive analysis method by describing deforestation and its impact to the diseases in adapting such environmental condition. Deforestation selected as the main topic of this article, noting the global environmental issues that is already on astonishing level, with nearly 2-3% of global forest lost annually (Patz, et al., 2004).

Deforestation

Rapid growth of human population leads to the demand of land to facilitate the human interactions. However, such demand cannot be covered by the land currently available. Thus, altering the use of land considered to be the most cost-effective solution to the problem.

There are ways to changes the use of land, one of which is by deforestation. Deforestation can be defined as the area of land cleared of forest, or the rate of forest clearing over time. Clearing forest land usually done by causing forest fire, that if done simultaneously perchance lead to another environmental issue of smoke haze.

Malaria Disease

Malaria is one of infectious diseases which symptom shows individual having fever and a positive Plasmodium spp. detection through microscopy. Natural transmission of malaria infection occurs by exposure to the bites of infective female anophelene mosquitoes. To better emphasize the focus of this article, it is worth noting that surrounding vegetation is critical because individuals commonly get infected in the surrounding areas (Valle & Clark, 2013). Climate, particularly temperature and rainfall, affects the ability of malaria parasites and anophelene vectors to coexist long enough to enable transmission (Hay, Guerra, Tatem, Atkinson, & Snow, 2005).

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates between 300-500 million clinical attacked of malaria globally each year, resulting in more than 1 million deaths. Not only that malaria poses a risk to survival, but the repeated clinical consequences of infection in early life place a burden on individual households, the health services, and the economic development. It is believed that malaria endemic significantly contributes to a perpetual state of depressed economic growth (Hay, Guerra, Tatem, Atkinson, & Snow, 2005).

Correlation between Deforestation and Malaria Diseases

Disturbance occurred to environment, such as changes in land use, time interval between each land use to another, changes in type of soil and its degree of water abruption, leads to the imbalance of ecological nature exists in such environment, then in turn would lead to the incidence and prevalence of the parasitic disease (Patz, Graczyk, Geller, & Vittor, 2000).

Where human purposely create forest fires for their economical ease, such as deliberately burned the forest to clear land for agriculture (Heriyanto, 2017), it also leads to environmental issue. Previous research conducted by EchoHealth shows link between deforestation and increased malaria incident. Land conversion and degradation, specifically those resulting in the reduction of tree cover believed to be the most important variables in the upsurge of malaria cases (EchoHealth Alliance, 2019).

Source: (EchoHealth Alliance, 2019)

It shows that approximately 31% of the infectious diseases are somehow related to the land use change, which makes environmental issues as the primary caused of the infectious diseases, compared to other causes. The following table explain more about human-animal transmission of infectious diseases:

Source: Greenpeace (Yuliardi, 2020)

Deforestation considered as the most disruptive changes affecting parasitic populations. Cleared forest and erosion strips away the thin layer of nutrients, which will take, if not forever, more than 50 years to regenerate. It would affect the soil type, elevation, mean precipitation, and latitude. Where cleared tropical forests usually used for human-related purposes, or left as open areas lead to the movement of human populations, it would also lead to changes in the types and amounts of vegetation, as well as changes to the reproduction of existing vectors and their parasites (Patz, Graczyk, Geller, & Vittor, 2000).

While many studies conclude deforestation leads to higher malaria cases, due to human invasion to the forest area, however, some study concluded different. Some presumes that ongoing deforestation tends to increase the distance between household and the forest. Therefore, human contact with malaria vectors should have been reduced. This conclusion based on study which describes the forest fringe as a unique ecotone where larvae tend to cluster, serving as a potential source of malaria vectors. Thus, keeping human contact distant with such cluster supposed would significantly lower the risk of contact with malaria vectors. The study also argues clearing the forest exposes mosquito larval habitats to sunlight, subsequently reducing larval populations of certain species (Lima, Vittor, Rifai, & Valle, 2017).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the differences between study that argues deforestation increases malaria cases and study which argues the contrary is that it uses different land utilization after deforestation occurred. If the cleared land then utilized for human population and household, then the infection rate would likely be higher, due to the reproduction of existing vectors and their parasites caused by the changes on the cleared land, become closer to human populations. However, should the result of deforestation utilize for purposes other than human population, or left human contact distant to the cleared land, then it is unlikely that it caused increment of malaria cases. Therefore, most important aspect is not only the deforestation itself, but how the cleared land is utilized as well. However, as this article based on literature review, the author believes further research should be conducted on the relation between malaria vectors and cleared surrounding, other determinant factors, along with the relationship between each determinant factor to the others.

References

EchoHealth Alliance. (2019). Infectious Disease Emergence and Economics of Altered Landscapes. New York: EcoHealth Alliance.
Hay, S., Guerra, C., Tatem, A., Atkinson, P., & Snow, R. (2005). Urbanization, malaria transmission and disease burden in Africa. Nature reviews, Microbiology, 81-90.
Heriyanto, D. S. (2017). Resolving Indonesia’s Responsibility for Transboundary Haze Pollution in Light of the Toothless ATHP. In P. L. Marcel Szabó (Editor-in-Chief), Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law 2017 (pp. 191-192). The Hague: Eleven International Publishing.
Lima, J., Vittor, A., Rifai, S., & Valle, D. (2017). Does deforestation promote or inhibit malaria transmission in the Amazon? A systematic literature review and critical appraisal of current evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences.
Patz, J., Daszak, P., Tabor, G., Aguirre, A., Pearl, M., Epstein, J., . . . Working Group on Land Use Change and Disease Emerg. (2004). Unhealth landscapes: Policy recommendations on land use change and infectious disease emergence. Environmental health perspectives, 1092-1098.
Patz, J., Graczyk, T., Geller, N., & Vittor, A. (2000). Effects of Environmental Change on Emerging Parasite Diseases. International Journal for Parasitology, 1-11.
Valle, D., & Clark, J. (2013). Conservation Efforts May Increase Malaria Burden in the Brazilian Amazon. PLoS One.
Yuliardi, R. (2020, March 30). Apa Hubungannya Kerusakan Hutan, Krisis Iklim dengan Potensi Wabah Penyakit Baru Menular? Retrieved from Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/indonesia/cerita/4901/apa-hubungannya-kerusakan-hutan-krisis-iklim-dengan-potensi-wabah-penyakit-baru-menular/#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=5eddec9c61addfcb&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1