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How Illegal Gold Mining Relates To The Spread Of Malaria
![A person illegally pans for gold at a site in the Department of Choco near the city of Quibdo, Colombia, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. According to Santiago Angel, head of the Colombian mining association, about 85 percent of the 59 tons of gold produced last year in Colombia comes from operations without government licenses or environmental permits.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/923c47d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/909x682+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2017%2F05%2F30%2Fgettyimages-623641496-4d0263622e51ae2c3802f8344afd172a19e0f037.jpg)
Nicolo Filippo Ross
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Bloomberg via Getty Images
Corrected: May 10, 2017 at 11:00 PM CDT
During this report, malaria is referred to as a virus. In fact, the disease is caused by a parasite.