Brazil

Despite historical and contemporary evidence of its effectiveness, larval source management with insecticides remains little used by most malaria control programs worldwide. Here we show that environmentally safe biological larvicides under field conditions can significantly reduce anopheline larval density in fish farming ponds that have became major larval habitats across the Amazon Basin.

Emerging Plasmodium vivax resistance to chloroquine (CQ) may undermine malaria elimination efforts in South America. CQ-resistant P. vivax has been found in the major port city of Manaus but not in the main malaria hot spots across the Amazon Basin of Brazil, where CQ is routinely coadministered with primaquine (PQ) for radical cure of vivax malaria. Here we randomly assigned 204 uncomplicated vivax malaria patients from Juruá Valley, northwestern Brazil, to receive either sequential (arm 1) or concomitant (arm 2) CQ-PQ treatment.

Habitat modification may facilitate the emergence of novel pathogens, and the expansion of agricultural frontiers make domestic animals important sources of pathogen spillover to wild animals.