In Malaysia, a rare form of malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi has leapfrogged other sources of the disease to cause 68 percent of the country’s malaria cases in 2013. While causality has not yet been proven, Dr. Balbir Singh , Director of the Malaria Research Center at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, believes that deforestation is putting macaque monkeys (which are common hosts of the parasite) in closer contact with humans, resulting in an increase in cross-species transmission . Read the rest of Is Malaysia’s Rare Malaria Spike Linked to Drastic Deforestation? Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: contagious diseases , cross-species transmission , deforestation , Dr. Balbir Singh , habitat destruction , habitat loss , Logging , macaque , malaria , Malaysia , monkey , mosquito , palm oil plantation , parasites , Plasmodium knowlesi , transmissible diseases
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Is Malaysia’s Rare Malaria Spike Linked to Drastic Deforestation?