Investigating the Yanomami malaria outbreak: gold mining and malaria

The Yanomami, an Indigenous group from the Amazon, confront multifaceted challenges endangering their health and cultural integrity. Of immediate concern is the humanitarian crisis caused by surges in malaria amid increasing illegal gold mining in their territory. Leveraging satellite imagery and panel regression analyses, we quantified the effect of land use changes on malaria incidence on their land (2016-2023). We observed an approximately 300% increase in malaria cases during this period, associated with increases in illegal gold mining. An increase of 1 s.d. in gold mining is associated with a 20-46% rise in malaria incidence 1-2 years later. We found that changes in forest areas significantly affect malaria rates: for every 1 s.d. increase in the perimeter of forest edges, malaria cases rise by 55%. Our findings highlight the major impact of illegal gold mining and the resulting fragmentation of forests on the high malaria burden experienced by the Yanomami.