Climate Exchange

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ealth

already contributed to a reduction in malaria of more than 60 per

cent.

International financial commitments to malaria control

currently total around US$2 billion worldwide, of which around

US$2.5 million has been earmarked specifically for Solomon

Islands reduction campaigns.

Secondly, there is evidence that

the African MEWS, which is also based on climatic forecasts, has

helped to reduce the incidence of malaria in that part of the world.

Thirdly, a project to develop an operational early warning system

would complement current reduction strategies such as the wide-

spread use of insecticide-treated bed nets. A recent survey by the

UNDP found that around 70 per cent of the population of the

Solomon Islands was using these nets, with the lowest rate of use

in the lower socioeconomic groups.

Early warning of potential

outbreaks would enable authorities or donors to ensure that nets

were distributed to economically disadvantaged sectors of the

population, in addition to ensuring that anti-malarial medication

was available for prompt treatment of any infections that did occur.

These advantages would need to be exploited to ensure the

future development and sustainability of an early warning system.

Feedback on the project results indicates that SIMS and SIMTRI are

keen to develop the prototype system of this study into an opera-

tional malarial early warning system, with recognition that further

and ongoing engagement of all stakeholders will be essential for

ensuring that the system and its associated services are

robust and sustainable.

A third and expanded phase of the PI-CPP, called

Climate and Ocean Monitoring and Prediction

(COMP), commenced in July 2012. COMP sits under

the broader Climate and Oceans Support Program for

the Pacific (COSPPac), which, like PI-CPP, is funded

by AusAID and implemented by the Australian Bureau

of Meteorology. One component of COMP will be to

support climate-sensitive industries to understand

and use seasonal climate information through the

implementation of sustainable application projects in

COMP partner countries.

These projects will build

initially on the results of the PI-CPP pilot projects,

including the Solomon Islands malaria study and,

where appropriate, COSPPac will support the devel-

opment of fully operational climate risk management

and early warning systems. The projects will play a

significant role in COSPPac as a means of showing

how climate data and predictions can be used to

confer real and measurable benefits across a number

of industry sectors in the Pacific exposed to signifi-

cant risk from climate variability and extremes.

Climate information helps provide an early warning system for malaria outbreaks in the Solomon Islands,

allowing for improved healthcare and a reduction in lost productivity

Images: Australian Bureau of Meteorology