Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least 1 million deaths, annually.
3000 children per day in Africa die from malaria, almost one every 30 seconds.
Malaria is both a disease of poverty and a cause of poverty, as the WHO also notes. Furthermore,
Malaria has significant measurable direct and indirect costs, and has recently been shown to be a major constraint to economic development.… The indirect costs of malaria include lost productivity or income associated with illness or death.
Malaria also hampers children’s schooling and social development through both absenteeism and permanent neurological and other damage associated with severe episodes of the disease.
The risk of contracting malaria in endemic areas can deter investment, both internal and external and affect individual and household decision making in many ways that have a negative impact on economic productivity and growth.
Source: Economic costs of Malaria, World Health Organization, November 27, 2005
[Anup Shah]
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