CARTO-MALARIA

Almost half of the world’s population, or 3.2 billion people, are at risk of malaria. Those living in poor countries are the most vulnerable. A child dies of malaria every minute. In 2013, 90% of malaria deaths occurred in Africa. To combat this scourge, we have developed Carto-malaria, a mapping of areas where the malaria vector, the female Anopheles, develops. These are usually rubbish dumps, gutters, stagnant puddles. Carto-malaria makes it possible to identify all these areas and helps implement local awareness-raising campaigns. City public utilities/technical departments and sanitation agents will be able to use this data for their land-use planning. Carto-malaria is an ambitious project that entails mapping and digitising the geographical coordinates of all risk areas where the malaria vector develops. The geolocation of risk zones will be accompanied by the use of a mobile text-message application that will disseminate awareness-raising information using voice messages to the public, mainly those living in risk areas that have already been georeferenced. For those behind the Carto-malaria project, sending voice messages directly to people’s phones, explaining how to improve wastewater disposal, how and why to use nets and insecticides, are effective means of preventing malaria.

There are maps of countries affected by malaria in all inter-tropical countries and also in the most-affected communities in various countries. But no organisation offers micro-mapping on a small scale to help combat this scourge.