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A study by SFI External Professor Mercedes Pascual and collaborators shows that malaria creeps to higher elevations during warmer years, suggesting that climate change will bring the mosquito-borne disease to higher, more densely-populated regions, especially in Africa and South America.

 The researchers also suggest that the severity of the disease could be far greater because the newly exposed populations in these areas lack protective immunity against the disease.

A 1 degree celsius temperature increase could result in an additional 3 million malaria cases annually, they estimate.

Read the paper in Science (March 6, 2014)

Read the article on BBC.com (March 6, 2014)

Read the article in Scientific American (March 7, 2014)

Read the article in U.S. News & World Report (March 7, 2014)

Read the article on Fox News (March 7, 2014)

Read the article in The Times of India (March 8, 2014)