Interactive explainers

Malaria transmission & control

A collection of short, interactive, explainers on how malaria transmission behaves and how control interventions reshape it. Each one pairs a plain-language walkthrough with a toy model you can play with.

Work in progress — pages may change

Explainers

1

Non-linearities in malaria epidemiology and control

Why a modest change in mosquito survival or bed-net coverage can produce a much larger (or surprisingly small) change in prevalence and clinical cases. Trace a bed-net effect through the EIR → prevalence → incidence cascade.

Open explainer →
2

Rebounds: why protection can dip below baseline

When transmission-reducing control is withdrawn, naturally-acquired immunity has waned underneath it, so total protection can fall below where it started. Explore the three drivers of rebound with a toy protection-over-time model.

Open explainer →
3

Seasonality and the timing of control

Where transmission is seasonal, malaria arrives in a short window and preventive treatment protects for only a short time. Explore how the impact of seasonal malaria chemoprevention depends on when its rounds land and on who they reach, with a toy model of cases through the year.

Open explainer →
4

The age distribution of malaria burden

Malaria is a disease of young children only where transmission is intense. See how rising transmission concentrates clinical cases in the very young, through acquired immunity, with a live implementation of the Griffin model.

Open explainer →

Built with the Feynman technique

These explainers are my take on the Feynman technique: you only really understand a topic once you can explain it in plain language and build a working toy model of it. Each one works through an idea in malaria transmission and control that way.

1
Choose a conceptpick something to understand
2
Teach it to someoneexplain it in plain language
3
Identify gapsfind where it breaks down
4
Refine & simplifyfill the gaps, then simplify