Poverty and malaria in the Yunnan province, China

Poverty and malaria appear to have an intertwined link. This paper aims to define the relationship between poverty and malaria in Yunnan, China, and to make recommendations for future research in this important area. Data on malaria prevalence and the population’s income in each county between 2005 and 2010 were obtained from the Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Yunnan Bureau of Statistics, respectively. Geographic mapping shows an apparent spatial convergence of poverty and the incidence of malaria at a county level, and suggests that poverty may be one of the drivers of malaria transmission in Yunnan. Future research should focus on: 1. measuring and quantifying the relationship between poverty and the malaria burden at the individual, community, county and regional level in Yunnan; and 2. developing the GIS-based spatial decision support system (SDSS) framework in malaria endemic areas, particularly along the border areas in Yunnan.