I have decided to focus my blog on Malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. More than one million people die from Malaria and between 300-600 million people suffer from the disease each year; 90% of these cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF, n.d.). Because malaria is a vector-borne disease carried by mosquitos (Anopheles), the risk factors are related to both humans, mosquitos, and the environment. Human risk factors are health status (malnutrition & other illness), pregnancy, and age (older individuals have greater immunity) (Protopopoff et al., 2009). Risk factors related to mosquitos are insecticide resistance, rainfall (increased rain increases mosquito lifespan and breeding capabilities), and availability of breeding sites (Protopopoff et al., 2009). Environmental factors include poorly constructed housing, poor drainage, poor access to healthcare and temperature, 75-85 degrees is the optimal temperature for parasite development (Protopopoff et al., 2009).
Malaria and poverty are historically intertwined, in 1995 countries with high rates of malaria showed income levels 67% lower than those without malaria (Gallup & Sachs, 2001). Malaria also strikes at the development of economies by reducing the amount of children that can attend school, not only must they stay home due to illness but many children affected by malaria will develop lifelong physical and/or mental impairments (UNICEF, n.d.). This only contributes to the cycle of poverty in malaria endemic countries. Anti-malarial drugs are available but the most effective are artemisinin-containing treatments (ACTs) which cost $1-2 dollars per dose, this is ten times more expensive that other malarial medications (UNICEF, n.d.). Costs related directly to the disease such as testing, treatment, and premature death are estimated at $12 billion per year (Centers, 2019). Poor infrastructure in malaria endemic countries contributes to the propagation of the disease and makes it more difficult to control. All of these factors add up to 1.3% suppression of economic growth each year, many of these are already among the poorest countries in the world (Shah, 2013).
References:
Centers for disease control and prevention. (2019). Malaria. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/malaria/index.html
Gallup, JL. & Sachs, JD. (2001). The economic burden of malaria. The American society of tropical medicine and hygiene. 64(1,2) pp. 85-96. Retrieved from https://www.ajtmh.org/content/journals/10.4269/ajtmh.2001.64.85
Protopopoff, N., Van Bortel, W., Speybroeck, N., Van Geertruyden, J. P., Baza, D., D’Alessandro, U., & Coosemans, M. (2009). Ranking malaria risk factors to guide malaria control efforts in African highlands. PloS one, 4(11), e8022. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008022.
Shah, S. (2013). 3 reasons we still haven’t gotten rid of malaria. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sonia_shah_3_reasons_we_still_haven_t_gotten_rid_of_malaria?language=en
UNICEF. (n.d.). The reality of malaria. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/health/files/health_africamalaria.pdf
World Health Organization. (2019). Malaria. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
World Health Organization. (2014). WHO: Key facts about Malaria (updated). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwYIyjwYluc
White, M., Conteh, L., Cibulskis, R., Ghani, A. (2011). Costs and cost-effectiveness of malaria control interventions – a systematic review. Malaria Journal 10:337. Retrieved from https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2875-10-337
April's Blog 