Illegal gold mining causes surges in malaria in the Amazon, and the association is far worse than we suspected

Illegal gold mining causes surges in malaria in the Amazon, and the association is far worse than we suspected

Gold prices are at an all-time high, and we are very worried. As disease ecologists, it’s not the economic instability that concerns us, but the fact that a surge in gold mining could have a devastating impact on human health. Our team of researchers from Stanford University, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, established and quantified the effects of illegal gold mining on a recent surge in ma…