Adaptation to Malaria in Rainforest Valleys The Case of Indigenous People of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper looks at the adaptation of the indigenous people to endemic malaria in the rainforest hilly valleys in the Southeastern part of Bangladesh. The prevailing thoughts and practices of malaria derived from a biomedical science paradigm deploy two interventions  – attacking the vector (preventive) and treating the disease in humans (curative). Drawing on local and international  data, a recent study in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) revealed that adaptations to malaria tend to be distinctive. Particular types of epidemiology, ecology, and indigenous people’s traits constitute the adaptations. The epidemiology of malaria is rather complex and  is characterized by seasonal epidemic cycle, diverse anopheline species, coexistence of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax.  Tropical and multiethnic ecology appears with the manifestation of its adaptive value in determining the breeding sites for larvae and malaria transmission. Traits of indigenous people as individual, self and person demonstrate the various ways in which  exposure to mosquitoes is reduced and thereby malaria rates are decreased. The paper concludes by anticipating more discussions on  adaptation so as to make the malaria measure multipronged.