What is malaria?

Malaria is a parasitic disease common in tropical regions of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. It’s spread by mosquitoes. The parasites target a person’s red blood cells causing light headedness, shortness of breath, and cause other systems including fever, chills, nausea, and in some cases death.

There is currently no vaccine to prevent against malaria but there are treatments for those who are infected. Prevention of malaria is the best way to control the disease. Use of insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets as well as insect repellent are cheap and effective ways at preventing the disease. While there are several prophylactic medications for malaria, they must be taken continuously and are usually too expensive for the people in affected areas.

Malaria has a huge impact on Uganda affecting the population and the economy. Development partially relies on a healthy workforce and malaria undermines this. The disease prevents families from making money and prevents children from going to school. What’s worse is that malaria is essentially an easily preventable disease. Malaria nets cost about 10 U.S. dollars which is expensive to most family in Uganda. However, organizations like Soft Power Health are able to subsidize the cost of the nets and sell them to families for $1.80.

Malaria’s Public Health Impact

  • There are between 350–500 million cases of malaria each year worldwide
  • Over 1 million people die from malaria each year, the vast majority of which are children in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Malaria is the leading cause of death of children under the age of 5 in Uganda
  • Malaria causes developmental defects in children and leads to difficulties in pregnancies in women
  • While there are treatments available for malaria, treatment-resistant strains of malaria have started to appear in Africa which is very troubling
  • Approximately 40% of health facility resources in sub-Saharan Africa are spent on malaria
  • Combined with other prevalent diseases in developing countries like malnutrition or HIV/AIDS, the effects of malaria are often more severe and often deadly

Malaria’s Economic Impact

  • Costs in form of treatment, treatment seeking, and funeral expenses
  • Expenditure on treatment and prevention: a poor family affected by malaria may spend up to 25% of its income on malaria treatment and prevention
  • By affecting families most during the rainy season when families least afford to be sick, malaria interferes with farming activities and leads to a loss of much-needed income.
  • Loss of household incomes through absenteeism from work: on the average, 7 working days (range 4-9 days) are lost per malaria episode in Uganda.

Other expenditures include…

  • Transport expenses while seeking treatment
  • Treatment of adults and children over 5 years old
  • Treatment of adults and children admitted in health facilities
  • The higher costs of treating the under 5s and other family members in private clinics and urban areas
  • Chloroquine failures which require more expensive drugs
  • Funeral expenses for children and adults who die
  • Aerosol sprays, mosquito coils, mosquito nets and other mosquito control expenses

Socio-Cultural Impacts of Malaria in Uganda

  • It is estimated that families affected by malaria are only able to harvest 40% of the crops harvested by a healthy family
  • Malaria is a leading cause of school absences in children. Malaria can also lead to developmental problems in children affecting their overall performance and ability to seek higher education

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