Malaria, Forests and People in Southeast Asia

Forests and deforestation have important implications for health from ecological, social, economic and political points of view. These implications are examined for the case of malaria, a major public health problem which is difficult to control for various biomedical and entomological reasons. In addition, there are significant socio-economic and political factors, particularly internal and international movements of population, which need to be examined for their role in the spread of malaria. Examples drawn from Southeast Asia and specifically Thailand are discussed in this paper.