{"id":43897,"date":"2026-07-22T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resoilfoundation.org\/?p=43897"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:39:21","slug":"amazon-diseases-forest-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resoilfoundation.org\/en\/environment\/amazon-diseases-forest-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Amazon, diseases follow forest transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brazilian study of more than one million cases of malaria, dengue, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis reveals how diseases cluster in distinct \u201chealth landscapes\u201d shaped by different land-use: from forest communities to large-scale agricultural systems<\/h2>\n

by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n

The spread of insect-borne diseases<\/strong> across the Brazilian Amazon does not follow random patterns but is closely linked to the way people use and reshape the landscape. This is the conclusion of a study<\/a> conducted by the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford<\/strong> and published in Communications Earth & Environment<\/em>. The research analysed more than one million reported cases of malaria, dengue, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis across the region’s municipalities over a five-year period.<\/p>\n

The findings, says<\/a> Milton Barbosa<\/strong>, an ECI researcher and co-author of the study, show that these diseases tend to cluster in distinct \u201chealth landscapes\u201d, shaped by the interaction between environmental change, economic activities, social conditions and urban development. In other words, their spread depends not only on the presence of insect vectors \u2014 such as mosquitoes, sand flies and triatomine bugs \u2014 but also on the environmental transformations driven by human activity.<\/p>\n

\n

Rainfall controls how African winds fertilize the Amazon<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n