Alicia Barriga

I examine the dynamics between changes in ecosystems, health, and population, particularly in areas at economic and climate change risk. I evaluate who bears the costs, how are they across populations, and what policies can be implemented or have been more successful. 

 

 

Findings from this research suggest that places where refugees settle, and their living conditions have implications on malaria incidence. Although malaria is not contagious, healthy refugees are prone to acquiring malaria when occupying endemic places that used to be vacant land. Camps are usually very pathogenic environments, densely populated and restricted of sanitation. Latrines and standing water produce the breeding grounds for mosquito proliferation and overcrowding increases the risk of vector contact. Low endemic places can rapidly become epidemic places. The Amazon region is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world, also hosting highly diverse species of malaria mosquitoes. Likewise, the Amazonas is experiencing rapid ecosystem changes due to climate change and deforestation, leading itself to changes in the ecology of vector-borne diseases. Understanding the dynamics between migration and malaria is thus critical to anticipating changes in the geography of malaria. 

 

Work Product: Presentation