A Disease of Poverty

Malaria and poverty are intimately connected – malaria is considered to be both a cause and consequence of poverty and is more difficult for the poorest countries in the world to eliminate.

Malaria affects the health and economic growth of nations and individuals alike. The simple presence of malaria in a community or country hampers individual and national prosperity due to its influence on social and economic decisions. The risk of contracting malaria in endemic areas can deter investment and affect individual and household decision making in many ways that have a negative impact on economic productivity and growth .

Some examples of negative impact include:

• Individual farmers/households prefer to plant subsistence crops rather than more labour-intensive cash crops because of malaria’s impact on labour during harvest season.
• Undeveloped markets due to traders’ unwillingness to travel to and invest in malaria endemic areas.
• Undeveloped tourist industry due to reluctance of travellers to visit malaria-endemic areas.
• Families that suffer from malaria harvest less than half the amount of healthy families.

The major barrier to curbing the malaria problem is the lack of funding. It is estimated that $5 billion would be needed each year to effectively control malaria. Only about $1.7 billion is given by malaria endemic country governments, donor governments, and UN agencies per year towards this cause. This money is needed to help provide insecticide treated mosquito nets, spraying to eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes and drugs to the half billion people who are infected each year.

Despite these barriers, there is hope as governments pledge more money towards controlling malaria and locals become educated on why changing habits can help them avoid the deadly disease. We are in a revolutionary time where poverty has become top of the list for many celebrities and governments and you can join us too. By eliminating poverty, we may help eliminate the endless deaths caused by malaria. By curbing the number of deaths caused by the disease, we are also helping to solve a major problem of poverty.

As Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade expressed, in order to be successful, the fight against malaria must be a comprehensive one which includes giving families and individuals insecticide-treated bed nets to sleep under, taking steps to kill mosquitoes where they breed and when they enter houses to feed at night, and making anti-malarial drugs such as ACT therapies more widely available. At the same time, we must continue the search for a vaccine. Read more about preventing malaria.