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2.4 billion people worldwide are living at risk of cerebral malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. The parasite kills more children and pregnant women than other strains

A world map of malaria caused by P falciparum, created for the year 2007, pinpoints areas at risk. It will help countries take appropriate control measures

The map shows three spatial classes based on constant risk of P falciparum malaria: low prevalence, medium prevalence and high prevalence

The Americas have a low prevalence of P falciparum

80 per cent of Central and southeast Asia come under the low prevalence area, though 11 per cent shows medium prevalence and less than 1 per cent has high prevalence

Africa shows a high prevalence. 0.35 billion people live at high risk

The rest of the world comes under two categories: low risk areas and malaria-free areas

The team, led by the University of Oxford in the UK, studied a total of 8,938 P falciparum parasite incidence surveys from across the world for an age group of 2-10 years

The last map was created in 1968 and suffered from limitations. The present map takes care of those limitations by including relevant data on climate and dominant mosquito species