SA hit by mozzies on steroids

UPSURGE: EXTREME WEATHER PATTERNS FUEL COMEBACK IN MALARIA-PRONE HOTSPOTS

Rattling fan was villager’s only defence before spraying.

In a remote South African village, Paulina Mhlongo sits in the yard as health workers in green protective gear move briskly through her home, soaking the walls with anti-mosquito insecticide.

Her teenage grandson fell critically ill last year from malaria, the disease that kills more than a quarter-of-a-million people annually and is surging in southern Africa as the climate shifts.

Before this spraying, the family’s “only defence” against malaria-carrying mosquitoes was a rattling fan, said Mhlongo, a 63-year-old retiree.

Her village of Calcutta is in Mpumalanga, one of three provinces in South Africa’s malaria belt experiencing changing rain patterns and rising temperatures that favour mosquito breeding.

Heavy rains leave pools for eggs, while warmer temperatures speed up mosquito development and shorten the malaria parasite’s incubation period.

Malaria cases in Mpumalanga jumped fourfold in January compared with a year earlier, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

The upsurge jeopardises South Africa’s goal of eliminating the disease by 2029.

Johannesburg and Pretoria, where malaria is not endemic, logged more than 400 cases and 11 deaths in the first three months this year, according to the NICD.

While most infections were imported into the province from known hotspots, these figures are “concerning”, even if the disease is not being transmitted between people, the health body said.

Human-driven climate change has increased the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, while the naturally occurring La Nina weather phenomenon brought above-average rains to parts of southern Africa in early 2026, causing flooding that created more mosquito breeding sites, the group said.

Namibia reported 8 760 cases in the first four weeks this year, a 68% increase from a year earlier.

Flood-hit Mozambique recorded more than 1.35 million cases in the first six weeks of the year, up 55% alongside dozens of deaths.

The outlook offers little reassurance as climate volatility deepens.

The increase in malaria cases does not mean the disease is migrating, said Prof Jantjie Taljaard, head of infectious diseases at Stellenbosch University.

Instead, climate change is supercharging existing hotspots and lengthening transmission windows, fuelling far more intense outbreaks.

The effects are being felt on the front line at Cunningmoore Clinic in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, where technicians Nicholas Skhumbane and Armstrong Mgiba swiftly process a steady stream of blood samples from surrounding villages.

Working out of a threadbare laboratory, the two men, clad in white coats and latex gloves, move systematically from slide to slide.

They add a drop of Giemsa stain, a purplish-blue dye that reveals malaria parasites, before placing samples under a microscope.

For health officials, the shifting weather patterns are forcing a rethink of malaria planning beyond traditional hotspots and seasons.

“Climate change is a complex thing to deal with,” said Sharon Lindiwe Nyoni, malaria programme manager at the Mpumalanga department of health.

The old assumption malaria is confined to summer no longer holds, she warned.

“Even in winter, we see transmission.”

It is not only local health systems that are coming under strain, experts say, but also intervention efforts. –

It’s often used as a surprise question by safari guides: What’s the most dangerous creature in Africa? Most are taken aback when they hear that it is the mosquito, but in terms of annual deaths, the tiny insect is far more deadly than any lion, buffalo, hippo or elephant. Now, as the climate changes, with increased rainfall and higher temperatures in some areas of southern Africa, scientists are concerned about a resurgence in malaria.

Malaria cases in Mpumalanga jumped fourfold in January compared with a year earlier, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Johannesburg and Pretoria, where malaria is not endemic, logged more than 400 cases and 11 deaths in the first three months this year, according to NICD.

Climate change is supercharging existing hotspots and lengthening transmission windows, fuelling far more intense outbreaks, say experts.

The lowveld areas of the subcontinent are home to malaria-carrying mosquitoes, but residents of higher-lying areas have become more blasé in taking precautions when visiting malaria areas.

Malaria prophylaxis is often not taken, or not trusted, and that could be deadly, as people returning from an endemic area may mistake the onset of malaria for symptoms of flu.

Moral of the story: don’t become another victim.