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Economic Costs and Barriers to Development |
- Over a quarter of a very poor family's income can be absorbed in the cost of malaria treatment, quite apart from the cost of prevention, or the opportunity cost of labour lost to illness.
- Each bout of malaria causes its victim to forego, on average, 12 days of productive output.
- Malaria infection can be chronic and unremitting in parts of the world with high transmission intensity, such as coastal Africa. Persons may receive hundreds of infectious mosquito bites a year, with the result they are perpetually weakened by the parasite. Children face particular risks.
- People are most at risk of malaria during the warm and rainy seasons; this is usually when there is most agricultural work that needs to be done.
- Malaria and fear of malaria prevents investment and tourism into new regions, further hampering economic development.
- Malaria is estimated to cost Africa more than US$12 billion annually.
This information about malaria was presented as the Background Information Pack during the development of the Roll Back Malaria Program (See Malaria Advocacy - The Beginnings )
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