POHUWATO, Indonesia — Lukman Ahmad managed in the end to drag himself down from the slopes of Mount Pani toward the southern coast of Indonesia’s Pohuwato district. When he staggered back into Botubilotahu village, the 56-year-old was gaunt and reeling. “I’m fine standing, and I can just about walk,” Lukman told Mongabay Indonesia. “But it makes me dizzy.” Alongside his brother, Lukman had planned to spend two weeks on the mountainside sifting through the Botudulanga River and its tributaries for tiny gold nuggets. But when Lukman developed a headache and fever, the brothers feared the worst. “I’ve been mining for 25 years,” he said, “and this was the first time I’ve contracted malaria.” Malaria is always contracted from a parasite smuggled into a person’s bloodstream by a mosquito bite. However, when the infection is brought on by either Plasmodium falciparum or P. vivax, two of five parasites that cause the disease, malaria can escalate dangerously by blocking vessels in the brain, risking neurological damage and death. Official data show that Lukman’s case wasn’t the only one among the gold miners of Pohuwato, in Gorontalo province on the island of Sulawesi. The head of the malaria section at the provincial health department told Mongabay Indonesia that recorded malaria diagnoses surged from 32 cases in 2022 to 815 last year. Around four out of five malaria cases were among gold miners, according to Taufik Lantowa, the Gorontalo malaria health lead. “The rest are farmers, fishermen, and then some are from the general…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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