Micro-spatial modelling of malaria cases and environmental risk factors in Buhera rural district, Zimbabwe

Malaria continues decimating population in Zimbabwe health system especially in high malarial rural areas. The transmission of malaria is seasonal and strongly influenced by the multiple risk factors such as malaria control interventions, land use, socio-economic determinants and environmental factors in Buhera rural district. Environmental risk factors such as rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index, day land surface temperature, enhanced vegetation index and night land surface temperature are risk factors for malaria as they influence the development of parasite vector and the relationship between the vector and host as well as malaria trends. In Buhera rural district, malaria incidences vary with environmental variables and influence endemicity levels and tend to cluster into high malaria perennial (perennial hotspots), low malaria perennial, high malaria sporadic(seasonal hotspots), low malaria sporadic hence perennial and seasonal hotspots become sources of continued malaria infection. Therefore, the study aimed at the modelling of malaria cases and environmental risk factors at micro-level strengthen malaria interventions and effective allocation of resources.