Johanna Nylander

Rebecca Grijalva
AP Human Geography
Malaria in the World

Malaria has been spreading throughout the world for many years now. It is
a disease in which a mosquito feeds on you, and transmits you its saliva into your
circulatory system. The most common symptoms of malaria are fever and
headaches, which may lead into coma, or even worst death. The World Health
Organization estimated in 2010 that there had been around 1.2 million people in
Africa killed by this disease, mostly children. Malaria is an example of contagious
diffusion since it is a disease that has been spreading around the world for many
years. Contagious diffusion is a rapid and widespread diffusion of a characteristic
throughout the population of between populations. It can include the spread of
ideas and the spread of diseases. This disease is most common in poor tropical and
subtropical areas in the world, as said before most commonly in Africa. This
disease has been spreading throughout the world, and is now known to be in South
America, Arabia, South East Asia and Asia, as the map clearly shows.
Around 2.7 million people are infected with Malaria in South America each
year. The risk of infections is found in rural areas such as: Bolivia, Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Malaria was diffused into South America since the
Spanish and Portuguese Empires divided the European colonization. They
imported their slaves from Western Africa and send them to South America,
spreading this disease. Malaria is developed in different kinds of water bodies, and
also global warming has been moving the altitude limits of Malaria into higher
elevations.
In the map I tried to simplify the information in order to make it easier to
understand the diffusion of Malaria throughout the world. I took away all the
rivers, mountain ranges in order to show the map in a clear way. The
symbolization I choose to use was with different colors, which represent where
Malaria has been eliminated, controlled and where there is no Malaria at all. It is a
worldwide map, and you can clearly see the different regions. The color green in
the map represents the area of Malaria being eliminated, blue is used to represent
the area which is controlling Malaria, and finally orange which represents all the
countries free from Malaria.
Malaria has a tendency to spread faster in the world when there are
monthly rainfalls, since water is the attraction for these mosquitoes. Malaria has
been associated geographically to places that suffer from poverty. The World
Health Organization is trying to make the economy raise in the countries affected
with Malaria, in this case: South America, Arabia, South East Asia and Asia, to be
able to do prevent the disease from spreading more. The rate of infant deaths
because of Malaria is high. Geographically, malaria disease has affected the life
expectancy rate of the population as well as infant mortality rate. It is necessary
that the countries with malaria disease seek the presence of external costs and
public expenditure to deplete malaria completely.
We can conclude that the disease of Malaria is a contagious diffusion
example because it is a quick spread thought the world. This disease is very
common to spread faster in damp, tropical areas where there is a lot of water,
which is the main cause for mosquitoes to reproduce and infect people. The
geographic features said before are more common on low developed countries.
The only way to prevent malaria in the future is being more careful when you
travel to countries that have this disease, and even get vaccine if available.


Bibliography:
Courcoux, Galle. "394 - Malaria: How Did It Reach the Americas? - Institut De
Recherche Pour Le Dveloppement (IRD)." 394 - Malaria: How Did It Reach
the Americas? - Institut De Recherche Pour Le Dveloppement (IRD). N.p.,
2012. Web. 01 Oct. 2013. <http://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/scientific-
newssheets/394-malaria-how-did-it-reach-the-americas>.

NA. "Water-related Diseases." WHO. N.p., 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/malaria/en/>.