About Malaria

What’s Malaria?

Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases our world faces today and is prevalent in 109 countries, especially in tropical and humid climates, including parts of the Americas, Africa and Asia. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites, or very small, single-cell blood organisms that harm their host.

Is it an issue that the average person has to worry about?

Generally, you are only at risk of contracting Malaria if while living in or traveling to an endemic area. Overwhelmingly, there are approximately 515 million cases of malaria each year, killing between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Even the strong and healthy can contract this deadly disease, but it can be even made worst for the elderly, young children, and the immunocompromised with existing health problems such as AIDS.

What is the economic impact of Malaria?

There is a noticeable gap in prosperity between countries with malaria and countries without malaria that has become wider every year. Poverty is seen as a cause of malaria, as well as infectious diseases in general, since the poor are financially unable to prevent or treat the disease.

As a whole, the economic impact of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa $12 billion USD every year.1 This expenditure includes costs of health care, lost working days due to sickness, days lost in education, a decline in productivity due to brain damage from cerebral malaria, and an underdeveloped tourism industry since investors and traders are not inclined to travel and invest in endemic areas.1 Local farmers also plant subsistence crops rather than more profitable manual-labouring cash crops because of malaria’s effect on workers during harvest season.

In some countries with a heavy malaria burden, the disease may justify for as much as 40% of public health expenses, 30-50% of inpatient admittance, and up to 50% of clinic visits.2 Creating ways to encourage government subsidies and ensuring that public healthcare providers are closer to all of the people in a town are effective ways to lessen the cost of treatment for the poor and all social classes. Equal accessibility and distribution of treatment is key here.

[1]Wikipedia. 2009. Malaria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria

[2]World Health Organization. Economic costs of Malaria. 1999. http://www.rbm.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/015/363/RBMInfosheet_10.htm