Malaria, Economics, and Human Affairs

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Background: The Economic Challenge of Malaria

Malaria and poverty are intimately entwined. Recent research shows that GDP levels in countries which are endemic and severe are only 1/3 of those in countries free of malaria, after controlling for factors like geographical isolation, colonial history, and economic policy. This pattern holds true for both African and non-African countries.

Malaria exacts direct and indirect costs to the individuals afflicted as well as their households, communities and countries. Among the direct economic costs to individuals and households are the costs of treatment, lost wages, and loss of investment caused by childhood mortality. Among the direct costs to communities and countries are the costs of health systems and lost worker productivity. On both an inter- and intra-national scale, malaria and poverty coincide geographically. Therefore, many of these costs are exacted on those who can afford them least.

Perhaps even more interesting, and much less well understood, are the indirect costs of malaria. Malaria may pose a formidable barrier to certain aspects of human population mobility, and therefore commerce and trade. Within nations, malaria may erect barriers around frontier regions and industries (for example, the Amazon region of Brazil, or the mining industry of many countries in South America and Africa). Other indirect costs of malaria may result from the clinical and biological effects of poor management of repeated infections during childhood. Malaria may contribute, for example, to malnutrition and faltered growth, in addition to anemia. Characterizing these indirect costs is an important goal for future research of economists, epidemiologists, and clinicians. Taken together, the direct and indirect economic costs of malaria are not insignificant, and ought to bring malaria to the attention of policy makers and government officials outside the public health sector.
 

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Last revised 11/01/2007