Malaria risk increase

21 November 2006 - 02:00
By unknown

Climate change will quadruple the number of South Africans at risk from malaria by 2020, said Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk .

Climate change will quadruple the number of South Africans at risk from malaria by 2020, said Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk .

Mosquitoes carrying the deadly malaria parasite are found near South Africa's northern borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

But this was likely to change and the mosquito-borne disease will move south, he said.

Pretoria and Johannesburg are among only a handful of major African urban centres free from a disease that kills more than a million people a year worldwide, mostly children. - Sapa