A weather-driven model of malaria transmission

Abstract

Background: Climate is a major driving force behind malaria transmission and climate data are often used to account for the spatial, seasonal and interannual variation in malaria transmission. Methods: This paper describes a mathematical-biological model of the parasite dynamics, comprising both the weather-dependent within-vector stages and the weather-independent withinhost stages. Results: Numerical evaluations of the model in both time and space show that it qualitatively reconstructs the prevalence of infection. Conclusion: A process-based modelling structure has been developed that may be suitable for the simulation of malaria forecasts based on seasonal weather forecasts. © 2004 Hoshen and Morse; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.