Tuesday, March 21, 2006

SMALL TEMPERATURE RISE = BIG RISE IN MALARIA CASES

New Scientist has an interesting article on a study linking a small rise in temperature to a big increase in malaria. It's only in paragraph nine of the ten paragraph article is it revealed the link is only tentative:
The group documented a warming trend of about 0.5°C in Africa's highland regions from 1970. Even this, they calculate, could have had a profound effect on the number of mosquitoes able to breed in higher-altitude areas.

"But it doesn’t prove that this is the main or only driver,” Pascual concedes. Other factors, such as changes in land use and growing resistance to anti-malaria drugs also influence the spread of the disease.

The researchers have yet to relate their models of climate and mosquito populations to data gathered about human cases of malaria in Africa over the past half century. “It would be an interesting and important step,” Pascual says
The article wouldn't have quite the same impact if the stuff in paragraph nine was in paragraph one, now would it?

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