Abstract / Summary
Abstract Malaria control has expanded rapidly, yet transmission remains entrenched across much of Africa. The next gains may depend not only on adding interventions but on improving how existing information is translated into action. We propose that environmental-health intelligence should become a complementary operational layer of malaria surveillance, linking routine observations of housing and neighbourhood conditions with epidemiological and entomological data. Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), where such functions exist within national or local systems, could collect standardized, georeferenced observations on mosquito entry points, drainage, water-holding structures and other context-specific environmental hazards. Integrated spatially, these data could help malaria programmes identify where environmental investigation or remediation should be prioritized, while housing, planning, water, sanitation and public-works authorities retain responsibility for structural remediation. This is a proposed implementation architecture, not a validated prediction system. Its effectiveness, cost, feasibility and equity would require prospective evaluation. The aim is not to replace insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, diagnosis, treatment, vaccines or chemoprevention, but to connect malaria intelligence more directly to the environments in which transmission occurs.