Perceptions of malaria control and prevention in an era of climate change: a cross-sectional survey among CDC staff in China

Malaria Journal

Research

Gil-Soo Han¹  Yehuan Sun²  Philip Weinstein³  Craig Williams⁴  Jianjun Xiang⁵  Peng Bi⁵  Scott Cameron⁵  Michael Xiaoliang Tong⁵  Alana Hansen⁵  Scott Hanson-Easey⁵  Qiyong Liu⁶  Xiaobo Liu⁶ 

[1] Communications and Media Studies, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, 3800, Clayton, VIC, Australia;Department of Epidemiology, Anhui Medical University, 230032, Hefei, Anhui, China;School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, 5005, Adelaide, SA, Australia;School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, 5001, Adelaide, SA, Australia;School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, Level 8, Hughes Building, North Terrace Campus, 5005, Adelaide, SA, Australia;State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 102206, Beijing, China;

关键词: Climate change;    Malaria;    Infectious diseases;    Imported cases;    Capacity building;    Perception;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12936-017-1790-3

 received in 2016-09-07, accepted in 2017-03-24,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThough there was the significant decrease in the incidence of malaria in central and southwest China during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a re-emergence of malaria since 2000.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst the staff of eleven Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China to gauge their perceptions regarding the impacts of climate change on malaria transmission and its control and prevention. Descriptive analysis was performed to study CDC staff’s knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and suggestions for malaria control in the face of climate change.ResultsA majority (79.8%) of CDC staff were concerned about climate change and 79.7% believed the weather was becoming warmer. Most participants (90.3%) indicated climate change had a negative effect on population health, 92.6 and 86.8% considered that increasing temperatures and precipitation would influence the transmission of vector-borne diseases including malaria. About half (50.9%) of the surveyed staff indicated malaria had re-emerged in recent years, and some outbreaks were occurring in new geographic areas. The main reasons for such re-emergence were perceived to be: mosquitoes in high-density, numerous imported cases, climate change, poor environmental conditions, internal migrant populations, and lack of health awareness.ConclusionsThis study found most CDC staff endorsed the statement that climate change had a negative impact on infectious disease transmission. Malaria had re-emerged in some areas of China, and most of the staff believed that this can be managed. However, high densities of mosquitoes and the continuous increase in imported cases of malaria in local areas, together with environmental changes are bringing about critical challenges to malaria control in China. This study contributes to an understanding of climate change related perceptions of malaria control and prevention amongst CDC staff. It may help to formulate in-house training guidelines, community health promotion programmes and policies to improve the capacity of malaria control and prevention in the face of climate change in China.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017