Are we at risk for climate change-borne diseases in the region? The spread of malaria into new areas in sub-Saharan Africa over the past few decades could be a result of changing temperatures, a team of researchers revealed in a study published in the Royal Society journal last week. The researchers found that over the past 100 years, mosquitoes that transmit malaria in sub-Saharan Africa — namely Anopheles mosquitoes also known as marsh mosquitoes — have moved to higher elevated areas by about 6.5 meters annually, and away from the equator by 4.7 kilometers per year.

Can we tell if this is climate change related? The paper’s lead author and biologist at Georgetown University Colin Carlson told the New York Times that the pace of the spread of mosquitoes is consistent with climate change. The dataset included long-term surveys from malaria programmes, as well as other data gathered from peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, and archival records from 1898 to 2016.