Unstable Malaria Transmission in the Southern Peruvian Amazon and Its Association with Gold Mining, Madre de Dios, 2001–2012

Sánchez, Juan F.; Carnero, Andres M; Rivera, E.; Rosales, Luis Angel; Baldeviano, G. Christian; Asencios, J.L.; Edgel, Kimberly A.; Vinetz, Joseph M.; Lescano, Andrés G.

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.16-0030

Cited by 47 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Two groups of mining districts were identified: those with high gold production methods, large numbers of malaria cases and high APIs, and those with low gold production and a low number of malaria cases [5]. A similar conclusion was found in Madre de Dios region in Peru in 2001-2012, where the number of malaria cases per month had a strong association with the amount of extracted gold, but a weak association with the average gold prices [13]. In Brazilian Amazon, the risk of malaria differs with the type of mining: the API in 2013 in municipalities with illegal mining activities was about 20.8 to 22.3, while that in areas with industrial legal mining was between 0.2 and 0.5 [32].…”

Section: Gold Production and Number Of Malaria Casessupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Legal exploitation is more industrial. The proportion of these two mining statuses varies greatly from one country to the other (Table 1) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Colombia, 89.3% of malaria cases originated from the six regions with the highest gold mining activity [5,35]. In Peru, until 2015, health facilities located in areas of intense illegal gold mining (Madre de Dios region) reported 30 times more malaria cases than those in non-mining areas [13,36]. This region, in which gold mining is the main economic activity, had the third largest number of malaria cases in Peru despite being the least populated area [13].…”

Section: State-level Data From Surveillance Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Peru, until 2015, health facilities located in areas of intense illegal gold mining (Madre de Dios region) reported 30 times more malaria cases than those in non-mining areas [13,36]. This region, in which gold mining is the main economic activity, had the third largest number of malaria cases in Peru despite being the least populated area [13]. In Guyana, 94% of malaria cases in 2018 were from the four regions where inhabitants participate in gold mining and logging as their main economic activity [37].…”

Section: State-level Data From Surveillance Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

et al. 2020

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Purpose of Review Following Paraguay and Argentina, several countries from the Amazon region aim to eliminate malaria. To achieve this, all key affected and vulnerable populations by malaria, including people working on gold mining sites, must be considered. What is the situation of malaria in these particular settings and what are the challenges? This literature review aims to compile knowledge to answer these questions. Recent FindingsThe contexts in which gold miners operate are very heterogeneous: size and localization of mines, links with crime, administrative status of the mines and of the miners, mobility of the workers or national regulations. The number of malaria cases has been correlated with deforestation (Brazil, Colombia), gold production (Colombia), gold prices (Guyana), or location of the mining region (Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana). The burden of malaria in gold mines differs between territories: significant in Guyana, French Guiana, or Venezuela; lower in Brazil. Although Plasmodium vivax causes 75% of malaria cases in the Americas, P. falciparum is predominant in several gold mining regions, especially in the Guiana Shield. Because of the remoteness from health facilities, self-medication with under-the-counter antimalarials is frequent. This constitutes a significant risk for the emergence of new P. falciparum parasites resistant to antimalarial drugs. Summary Because of the workers' mobility, addressing malaria transmission in gold mines is essential, not only for miners, but also to prevent the (re-)emergence of malaria. Strategies among these populations should be tailored to the context because of the heterogeneity of situations in different territories. The transnational environment favoring malaria transmission also requires transborder and regional cooperation, where innovative solutions should be considered and evaluated.

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Section: Gold Production and Number Of Malaria Casessupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Legal exploitation is more industrial. The proportion of these two mining statuses varies greatly from one country to the other (Table 1) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Section: Gold Mines In the Amazon: Context And Health Impact Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State-level Data From Surveillance Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State-level Data From Surveillance Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

et al. 2020

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“…These gold-mining areas likely make malaria transmission resilient to interventions, as they not only sustain transmission but also can restore it (“rescue effect”) after interventions have reduced malaria locally or even achieved local elimination in other areas as has been observed in Venezuela [15,57]. Transmission in such settings is considered the Gordian knot for achieving malaria elimination in Latin America [5,58,59]. Hotspot-targeted control has been hypothesized as an effective approach to reduce the burden of malaria in areas of heterogeneous malaria transmission [57,60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Malaria in Southern Venezuela: The Hottest Hotspot in Latin America

Grillet

Moreno²,

Hernandez

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Malaria cases in Latin America reached ~1 million in 2017 and 2018, with 53% and 51% reported from Venezuela, respectively. In this study, we characterized the spatiotemporal dynamics of malaria transmission between 2007-2017 in southern Venezuela, the main endemic area of the country. We found that disease transmission was focal and more prevalent in the southeast of southern Venezuela where two persistent hotspots of Plasmodium vivax (76%) and P. falciparum (18%) linked to deforestation for illegal gold mining accounted for ~60% of the country-wide number of cases. Incidence has increased nearly tenfold in the last decade, showing an explosive epidemic growth due to a significant lack of disease control. We suggest that a source-sink pattern of Plasmodium sp.dispersal account for the re-emergence and progression of malaria transmission in the last 4 years across the country due to the internal migration of infected people to and from the hotspots and other malaria-prone ecosystems. We observe a similar pattern explaining the spillover of cases across international borders affecting neighboring countries. This study provides baseline epidemiological data and guidance for malaria control to further assess the dynamics of cross-border malaria, the role of asymptomatic carriers, drug-resistant evolution, and innovative control efforts in the Latin America region.

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Predictors of mitochondrial DNA copy number and damage in a mercury‐exposed rural Peruvian population near artisanal and small‐scale gold mining: An exploratory study

Berky

Ryde

Feingold

et al. 2018

Environ and Mol Mutagen

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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number (CN) and damage in circulating white blood cells have been proposed as effect biomarkers for pollutant exposures. Studies have shown that mercury accumulates in mitochondria and affects mitochondrial function and integrity; however, these data are derived largely from experiments in model systems, rather than human population studies that evaluate the potential utility of mitochondrial exposure biomarkers. We measured mtDNA CN and damage in white blood cells (WBCs) from 83 residents of nine communities in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon that vary in proximity to artisanal and small‐scale gold mining. Prior research from this region reported high levels of mercury in fish and a significant association between food consumption and human total hair mercury level of residents. We observed that mtDNA CN and damage were both associated with consumption of fruit and vegetables, higher diversity of fruit consumed, residential location, and health characteristics, suggesting common environmental drivers. Surprisingly, we observed negative associations of mtDNA damage with both obesity and age. We did not observe any association between total hair mercury or, in contrast to previous results, age, with either mtDNA damage or CN. The results of this exploratory study highlight the importance of combining epidemiological and laboratory research in studying the effects of stressors on mitochondria, suggesting that future work should incorporate nutritional and social characteristics, and caution should be taken when applying conclusions from epidemiological studies conducted in the developed world to other regions, as results may not be easily translated. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 60: 197–210, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Unstable Malaria Transmission in the Southern Peruvian Amazon and Its Association with Gold Mining, Madre de Dios, 2001–2012

Cited by 47 publications

References 36 publications

Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

Malaria in Gold Miners in the Guianas and the Amazon: Current Knowledge and Challenges

Malaria in Southern Venezuela: The Hottest Hotspot in Latin America

Predictors of mitochondrial DNA copy number and damage in a mercury‐exposed rural Peruvian population near artisanal and small‐scale gold mining: An exploratory study

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