Case study - Malaria

Question 1

What regions are most affected by malaria?

Answer 1

Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South America

Question 2

How does malaria impact population health?

Answer 2

Causes high mortality, especially among children under five, and morbidity, leading to anaemia and reduced productivity

Question 3

How does climate change affect malaria distribution?

Answer 3

Rising temperatures may expand malaria zones and increase transmission seasons in affected areas

Question 4

What are some effective malaria prevention methods?

Answer 4

• insecticide-treated nets can reduce transmission
• indoor insecticide spraying
• draining stagnant water
• anti-malarial drugs

Question 5

What global efforts are in place to combat malaria?

Answer 5

• WHO’s global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Question 6

How does malaria affect economic development?

Answer 6

• increases healthcare costs
• reduces agricultural productivity
• creates a poverty cycle by affecting health and education

Question 7

What is malaria?

Answer 7

A life-threatening vector borne disease caused by parasites, transmitted through the bite of female anopheles mosquitoes

Question 8

Which environmental factors contribute to malaria transmission?

Answer 8

• warm temperatures
• high humidity
• stagnant water

Question 9

What are the symptoms of malaria?

Answer 9

Fever, sweats and chills

Question 10

What percentage of malaria cases occur in Africa?

Answer 10

Approximately 90% of malaria cases occur in Africa, with 80% of deaths also being in Africa

Question 11

How many people are at risk of malaria?

Answer 11

• 3.6 billion people are at risk of malaria worldwide in 106 countries
• kills 1 million people annually

Question 12

Where do mosquitos thrive?

Answer 12

• needs a temperature of above 20C to reproduce
• wet conditions (transmission greatest after rainy seasons) and stagnant waters
• prefer lower altitudes (don’t tend to go above 1,500m)
• tend to inhabit densely populated fertile faming lands

Question 13

What are the direct costs of malaria?

Answer 13

• it takes away from public health spending (healthcare can account for up to 40% of annual expenditure in LICs)
• individual loss of earnings as adults won’t be able to work, if they are farmers this can even lead to food insecurity as agricultural productivity falls

Question 13

What are the indirect costs of malaria?

Answer 13

• loss of productivity for employers (WHO reports that malaria has cost Africa around £160 billion over the past 35 years)
• lack of continuity in education which is important to spread awareness about health and for people to gain skills which can help with a countries growth
• tourists put off from visiting leads to further economic loss, which puts a strain on growth

Question 14

How have insecticides been used to control the vector?

Answer 14

Using insecticide DDT was very effective however had caused environmental damage but is still used to spray walls of houses in mosquito infested areas as it is cheap and only needs to happen every 6 months

Question 15

How have bed nets been useful?

Answer 15

They are very effective and reduce transmission by 90% but only 5% of people at risk use them as they are expensive to give out on a national scale ($3 per net) and can only be used at night

Question 16

What methods are there to kill the mosquito larvae?

Answer 16

• draining and filling in suitable breeding sites
• packing water sites with fish that eat larvae which also provides a new source of food

Question 17

What has the PMI (U.S. Presidents Malaria Initiative) achieved in Ethiopia?

Answer 17

• given over 47 million mosquito nets
• given over 15 million fast acting malaria medications
• this can be bad as it makes Ethiopia reliant on funds from USAid finance programmes

Question 18

What have the achievements of malaria initiatives been?

Answer 18

• number of malaria related deaths reduced by 54% since 2000
• no malaria epidemics since 2003