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NEW EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTS OF AGRO-ECOLOGIC CHANGE ON MALARIA TRANSMISSION

Although maize pollen is known to provide nutrition for larval anopheline mosquitoes, the epidemiologic relationship between maize agriculture and malaria transmission has never been defined. To determine whether recent changes in malaria transmission in Ethiopia might be linked to the spread of maize as a commercial crop, we compared malaria transmission and maize cultivation intensity in 21 villages in the Bure District of northwestern Ethiopia where maize cultivation has recently expanded. The cumulative incidence in high maize cultivation areas was 9.5 times higher than in areas with less maize. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test results showed that malaria cases were not distributed evenly among categories of maize cultivation intensity, (² = 1,578, P < 0.001). A Poisson regression suggested that the intensity of maize cultivation, controlled for differences in elevation between sites, was positively and significantly correlated with malaria incidence. Thus, the intensity of maize cultivation was associated with exacerbated human risk of malaria in Bure.

Received July 21, 2004. Accepted for publication November 11, 2004.

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Dr. Andrew Spielman (Harvard School of Public Health) Dr. Awash TekleHaimanot (World Health Organization) Dr. Helmut Kloos (San Francisco City Hospital), Ato Semahagne Abate (Burie), and Ato Tesfaye Zewde (Ministry of Health, Burie) for their help in this research.

Financial support: This work was supported by a grant from the Fulbright-Hays Program of the U.S. Department of Education and by the College of Arts and Sciences and Office of the Provost of Boston University.

^* Address correspondence to James C. McCann, African Studies Center, Boston University, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: mccann{at}bu.edu

Authors’ addresses: Asnakew Kebede, Ethiopian Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 3069, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. James C. McCann, African Studies Center, Boston University, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, Telephone: 617-353-7308, Fax: 617-353-4975, E-mail: mccann{at}bu.edu. Anthony E. Kiszewski, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, E-mail: akisz{at}harvard.edu. Yemane Ye-ebiyo, P.O. Box 70193, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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