Disease

Malaria - Colombia

Colombia's widespread illegal mining is blamed for causing environmental damage and holding workers in slave-like conditions—and now is also being blamed for a malaria outbreak.

Critics point to stagnant water buildups at the clandestine sites and poor sanitary conditions at the workers' camps for an increase in mosquitos spreading the disease, which has quadrupled in jungle regions of the hard-hit and impoverished western department of Choco.

Malaria was especially on the rise in Choco — which stretches from the border with Panama along a stretch of Colombia's Pacific coastline—as well as the Bajo Cauca area to the east.

The National Health Institute counted 18,524 malaria cases and about 300 cases of the disease's more severe strain. A year earlier, only 4,740 cases of malaria were recorded.