Epidemic and Endemic Malaria Transmission Related to Fish Farming Ponds in the Amazon Frontier

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Izabel Cristina dos Reis, Programa de Computação Científica; Nildimar Alves Honório, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; Fábio Saito Monteiro de Barros, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Christovam Barcellos, Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde (ICICT); Uriel Kitron, Emory University; Daniel Cardoso Portela Camara, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; Glaucio Rocha Pereira, Núcleo Operacional Sentinela de Mosquitos Vetores—DIRAC/IOC/VPAAPS; Erlei Cassiano Keppeler, Universidade da Floresta; Mônica da Silva-Nunes, Universidade Federal do Acre; Cláudia Torres Codeço, Programa de Computação Científica
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-09-11
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2015 dos Reis et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137521
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS ONE
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 9
• Start Page: e0137521
• End Page: e0137521
• Grant/Funding Information: Universidade Federal do Acre, Fundação de tecnologia do estado do Acre (Grant n. 04/2012 to MdSN), and Fundação de Amparo à pesquisa no estado do Acre Grant n. 14/2013 to MdSN.; Funding was provided by Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Grants 484027/2012-3 to NAH, 479977/2008-9 to CTC, 471295/2011-6 to MdSN and Climate and Health Observatory 552746/2011-8 to CB), Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for the Support of Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Grants E-26/111.500/2011 to CTC); Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (Grants 3341-13-5 from Science without Borders program to ICdR)

Abstract

Fish farming in the Amazon has been stimulated as a solution to increase economic development. However, poorly managed fish ponds have been sometimes associated with the presence of Anopheles spp. and consequently, with malaria transmission. In this study, we analyzed the spatial and temporal dynamics of malaria in the state of Acre (and more closely within a single county) to investigate the potential links between aquaculture and malaria transmission in this region. At the state level, we classified the 22 counties into three malaria endemicity patterns, based on the correlation between notification time series. Furthermore, the study period (2003–2013) was divided into two phases (epidemic and post-epidemic). Higher fish pond construction coincided both spatially and temporally with increased rate of malaria notification. Within one malaria endemic county, we investigated the relationship between the geolocation of malaria cases (2011–2012) and their distance to fish ponds. Entomological surveys carried out in these ponds provided measurements of anopheline abundance that were significantly associated with the abundance of malaria cases within 100 m of the ponds (P < 0.005; r = 0.39). These results taken together suggest that fish farming contributes to the maintenance of high transmission levels of malaria in this region.