Learn more about the project from the February 25, 2008, story on NPR, New Roads in the Amazon May Deliver Disease.

Between 2000 and 2004, Peru reported the largest net increase in malaria cases and the second highest number of malaria cases in the Americas. More than 60% of malaria in Peru occurs in the peri-Iquitos region of Loreto Province, mostly along forest fringes and “new” colonization areas. Although several studies have examined factors associated with land use change and deforestation in tropical frontiers, surprisingly little is known about the epidemiology of tropical malaria during the early stages of frontier colonization. Following the Frontier Malaria Hypothesis, we will define several parameters of malaria transmission during initial stages of agricultural colonization. Specifically, we propose to collect a unique set of household, blood smear, vector, and spatial data along a road that is currently being constructed to extend 40-50km north of Iquitos to Mazan. Our long-term goal is to define demographic, ecological, and entomological factors of epidemic malaria during early frontier settlement and ascertain their relationship to long-term endemic rates and unsustainable colonization. Our central hypothesis tests whether epidemic malaria during agricultural colonization is due to unstable settlement, migrant labor, and ecological alteration as measured by land use change, An. darlingi expansion, and increasing parasitemia rates among indigenous and invading An. species. We believe that results can be used to help mitigate the health burden of settlers, which improves prospects for long-term sustainable agriculture, reduces tropical deforestation and mitigates the impact of land clearing on global climate change.