Climate Change Fueling Malaria in Kenya, Experts Say
‘Malaria has long been endemic to Kenya’s humid coast and swampy lowland regions, but it has only rarely reached Njoki’s village on the slopes of Mount Kenya (see Kenya map).
In recent decades, however, scientists have noted an increase in epidemics in the region, as well as in sporadic cases like Njoki’s.
Many medical and environmental experts attribute the spike in malaria to climate change, in the form of warmer temperatures and variations in rainfall patterns. (See a map of global warming’s effects.)
“We are now finding malaria in places that we did not expect to find it, particularly the highland regions that used to be too cool for malaria,” said Dorothy Memusi, deputy director of the Malaria Division in Kenya’s Ministry of Health.’
