AFRICA MONEY-Waking up to the maths of malaria
JOHANNESBURG, June 21 |
JOHANNESBURG, June 21 (Reuters) – To the minerals and
mobiles underpinning Africa’s pacy growth over the last decade,
you may soon be able to add malaria – or at least its absence.
Besides the huge human cost imposed on the continent – 90
percent of the 655,000 deaths estimated worldwide in 2010 – the
mosquito-borne disease is an economic millstone, draining public
and private resources and hammering productivity.
According to a 2001 study co-authored by U.S. economist
Jeffrey Sachs, the disease imposes an annual “growth penalty” of
1.3 percentage points on afflicted states, which includes most
of those south of the Sahara apart from South Africa.
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest
oil producer, malaria is responsible for up to 25 worker days
lost per person per year, or two a month, due to direct
infection or the need to stay at home to nurse a sick family
member, often for a week or more.
In Zambia, it is the leading cause of absenteeism,
accounting for more than twice as many days off as HIV/AIDS, and
can consume up to 40 percent of the public health budget in
cash-strapped frontline states.
It may not always be thus.
The number of malaria deaths has fallen dramatically in the
last decade due to increased aid spending on basic items such as
insecticide-treated bed nets and drugs, the World Health
Organization (WHO) says.
More excitingly, the holy grail of a vaccine against a
notoriously adaptable parasite no longer appears unobtainable
after an experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline was
shown last year to halve the risk of African children getting
the disease.
Even before the prospect of a vaccine, companies across
Africa were waking up to the commercial sense of investing in a
malaria-free workforce – and the results are encouraging
governments to get in on the act.
Faced with endemic malaria in the 240,000 population town
around its Obuasi gold mine in Ghana, AngloGold Ashanti
, the world’s third largest bullion producer, launched a
multi-pronged campaign of bed-nets, indoor insecticide spraying
and drugs that cut infections from 79,237 in 2005 to fewer than
16,000 in 2008.
The programme cost the Johannesburg-based firm $1.3 million
a year, but over that time the malaria drug bill at the mine’s
hospital dropped from $55,000 to $9,800 a month, while work days
lost each month fell from 6,983 to just 282.
“It really made economic sense because of the absenteeism
and the cost of medication,” said Steve Knowles, the head of
AngloGold’s anti-malaria operations.
The Ghana model is now being extended to commmunities around
its mines in Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mali and
Guinea, bringing as many as 500,000 people under its umbrella.
Europe’s financial crisis and relatively sluggish rich-world
growth have left a question mark over cash pools such as the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that have
been complementing state and private sector efforts, threatening
to unravel the gains made.
But Knowles said many governments were becoming increasingly
aware of the mathematics of beating malaria and starting to put
their own programmes in place.
The prospect of an affordable vaccine is only going to
increase the power of that argument for a region forecast to
grow at 5.4 percent this year – even with malaria. Without it,
that figure could be knocking on 7 percent.
“Now that they’re seeing the aid funding may not be there,
it’s a bit of a wake-up call and governments are looking to do
it themselves,” Knowles said. “What difference will a vaccine
make? If it comes through, it’s going to be huge.”
(Editing by Ed Stoddard and Ron Askew)
Culled from here : Africa News
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