Using climate information for improved health in Africa: relevance, constraints and opportunities.

Good health status is one of the primary aspirations of human social development and, as a consequence, health indicators are key components of the human development indices by which we measure progress toward sustainable development. Certain diseases and ill health are associated with particular environmental and climate conditions. The timeframe of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) demands that the risks to health associated with current climate variability are more fully understood and acted upon to improve the focus of resources in climate sensitive disease control, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where good epidemiological surveillance data are lacking.

Web-based climate information resources for malaria control in Africa.

Malaria remains a major public health threat to more than 600 million Africans and its control is recognized as critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The greatest burden of malaria in Africa occurs in the endemic regions where the disease pathogen is continuously present in the community. These regions are characterized by an environment that is conducive to interactions between the Anopheles mosquito, malaria parasites and human hosts, as well as housing of generally poor quality, which offers little protection from mosquito-human contact.