New Delhi, Aug. 4 -- Climate change has increased childhood malaria and could continue to do so in southern and East Africa where communities are less experienced at tackling the disease, while reducing the risk in today's hotspots as temperatures become too high for mosquitoes, according to a new study published in Nature. The study-The past and future impact of climate change on childhood malaria in Africa- quantifies climate change's historical and future impact in sub-Saharan Africa's children, where most cases and deaths occur. It finds that climate change has slightly increased malaria overall. Looking ahead, rising temperatures could increase the malaria risk in southern and East Africa while reducing it where it is most rampant today as it becomes so hot that even mosquitos struggle to survive. "Climate change isn't just making malaria worse or better-it's moving it," said co-author Tamma Carleton, faculty head of Research for the Climate Impact Lab and an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in a statement. "Whether a place sees elevated malaria risks or reduced burdens under climate change depends on how hot it is today. We see relief in the current hotspots and new risk nearly everywhere else." The study finds that climate change has slightly suppressed the spread of the disease in the warm, malaria hotbeds of today, and will continue to as it gets too hot for the disease to flourish-posing other human health threats. This is especially the case in many large West African nations (Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali), where climate change will reduce cases by 5%. In extremely hot Sahelian countries (Niger, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia) the disease may actually be fully eliminated. The opposite is true for cooler regions where malaria isn't a significant problem today, such as southern Africa and high-elevation east Africa. In these areas, climate change is slowly making the temperature more suitable for mosquitoes to spread malaria, increasing cases by 5% in the Ethiopian highlands (Kenya, Burundi) and by similarly large increases in Angola, Zambia, and northeast South Africa. By 2100, the risk could increase by 20 percent in regions like the Rift Valley and coastal southern Africa, creating new malaria challenges. But efforts to reduce emissions can change this trajectory. If the world is able to meet the 2degC warming threshold, this would avert 5 excess cases per 1,000 children in southern Africa and more in the east African highlands....