Abstract
Extraction of natural resources through mining and logging activities provides revenue and employment across sub-Saharan Africa, a region with the highest burden of malaria globally. The extent to which mining and logging influence malaria transmission in Africa remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluate associations between mining, logging, and malaria in the high transmission setting of the Democratic Republic of the Congo using population-representative malaria survey results and geographic data for environmental features and mining and logging concessions. We find elevated malaria prevalence among individuals in rural areas exposed to mining; however, we also detect significant spatial confounding among locations. Upon correction, effect estimates for mining and logging shifted toward the null and we did not find sufficient evidence to detect an association with malaria. Our findings reveal a complex interplay between mining, logging, space, and malaria prevalence. While mining concessions alone may not drive the high prevalence, unobserved features of mining-exposed areas, such as human migration, changing vector populations, or parasite genetics, may instead be responsible.
Highlights
The extent to which mining and logging influence malaria transmission in Africa remains poorly understood
We evaluated associations between exposure to mining and logging concessions and malaria prevalence among
Using population representative malaria survey results and geographic data for mining and logging concessions, our results revealed complex relationships between mining, logging, malaria, and space
Summary
The extent to which mining and logging influence malaria transmission in Africa remains poorly understood. We evaluate associations between mining, logging, and malaria in the high transmission setting of the Democratic Republic of the Congo using population-representative malaria survey results and geographic data for environmental features and mining and logging concessions. While mining concessions alone may not drive the high prevalence, unobserved features of mining-exposed areas, such as human migration, changing vector populations, or parasite genetics, may instead be responsible. Malaria remains a major cause of illness and mortality across sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 215 million cases reported in 2019 resulting in over 384,000 d. Extraction of natural resources through mining or logging markedly changes natural environments and ecologies, but the effects of these larger scale government allocated operations, referred to as concessions, on malaria remain poorly characterized in sub-Saharan Africa. Exportation of minerals alone accounts for an estimated 70% of the continent’s total e xports[7] and in Central Africa, nearly 50 million hectares of the Congo Basin are permitted for industrial logging c oncessions[8]
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