Initial research showed that malaria-carrying mosquitoes were more abundant in deforested areas, but didn’t examine malaria rates. Scientists needed more evidence of a link between deforestation and disease. Later research in Brazil using high resolution satellite data to track forest cover, and more comprehensive health data, including patient blood samples, gave them the information they needed. Brazil has more than seven thousand health districts. Scientists tracked fifty-four of these districts, comparing both deforestation and malaria rates. They found that only a four-percent change in forest cover was associated with a dramatic forty-eight percent increase in malaria. With over a half million cases of malaria documented in the Amazon each year, it seems that tree hugging might be a good way to save lives.