Deforestation ClearsWay for Zoonotic Malaria inMalaysia Intensivedeforestation inMalaysia’s rainfor-

Deforestation ClearsWay for Zoonotic Malaria inMalaysia Intensivedeforestation inMalaysia’s rainforests isexposingmorehumanstoatypeofmalariapreviouslyfoundonly in long-tailandpigtailmacaques, reportaninternational teamof investigators (Fornace KM et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016;22[2]:201-209). An increase in the number of human infections with the zoonotic malaria species Plasmodium knowlesi have been noted in Malaysian Borneo over the last decade, and it is now the leading cause of humanmalaria in the region. Deforestation has been suggested to drive this emergence by promotingclosercontactbetweenhumansandmosquitoes that bear the pathogen—primarily Anopheles leucosphyrus mosquitoes— throughspatialoverlapbetweenvillagesand macaques living in nearby forests. To explore potential associations between disease transmission and deforestation, the researchers analyzed data on Pknowlesimalaria incidencefromhealthclinics in the districts of Kudat andKotaMarudu in northwestern Sabah, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo from 2008 to 2012. During this time period, they found 2006 people with malaria in 405 villages, of whom 739 were estimated to be infected with P knowlesi. Estimates from remote sensing data indicateda4.8%concomitantdecline in forest cover in Kudat and KotaMarudu. Theresearchers foundduringtheir5-year period of observation that substantial environmental change occurred in these districts, with 206 of 405 villages (51%) having lostmorethan10%of forestcoverwithin a 5-km radius. They noted that a higher incidenceofPknowlesiacross villageswasassociated with a high rate of forest loss surrounding these villages 5 years before, but not within the same year, the incidence of P knowlesimalaria was reported.