Traveling Somewhere Tropical this Holiday Season?  Read this first…

by Kara Pinato

            If you have ever traveled somewhere exotic, you may have made a trip to the doctor’s office in order to get a prescription for antibiotics that aid in preventing malaria.  Here, in the United States, we do not typically worry about the communicable disease.  In other countries, specifically in the tropics, the disease is a major economic and social burden.  These burdens range from effects on fertility, population growth, worker productivity, mortality and medical costs. 

            What people do not seems to know, are the causes of malaria and why the disease is more prevalent in the tropics in comparison to countries in more temperate regions of the world.  Long term climate changes such as El Niño and global warming have effects on the distribution of the disease as well. 

So what exactly is malaria and how is it transmitted?

Malaria begins as a parasite that is transmitted into the female mosquito from an infected human when it takes blood from their body.  The parasite then undergoes a life-cycle change.  In warmer climates, the life-cycle change progresses faster than it does in colder climates.  Malaria parasites cannot develop at all in temperatures below 16 degrees Celsius.  Thus, tropical countries are most susceptible to the contraction and transmission of the disease.  After the parasite has developed fully, the female mosquito is then capable to biting and infecting a human with the disease. 

Africa solely accounts for 90 percent of the mortality caused by malaria.  This is specifically related to the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest transmission rates due to the specific species of mosquito known as the Anopheles gambiae.  This species has the greatest tendency towards human biting. 

The shocking increase of burden caused by malaria in recent years among tropical countries demonstrates the lack of success in preventing the disease in tropical regions.  Conversely, malaria has been controlled and transmission has been decreased in temperate regions, hence the lack of awareness of the disease in the United States.

Striking correlations have been drawn between the malaria and poverty.  In one situation, poverty may be a cause of malaria, or malaria may be a cause of poverty.  Some strong evidence of latter deal with medical costs.  Private medical costs are spent by individuals for prevention, diagnoses and treatment of the disease.  In the United States, most costs are spent on prevention of the disease when people decide to travel to regions in which there are high risks of malaria.  Malaria also undoubtedly effects trade and tourism.           

Poverty stricken countries are likely to base fertility decisions with the mortality rate in mind.  Malaria kills over one million people a year and typically in children between the ages of newborn and 4 years.  Because of the high mortality rate, families

will make fertility decisions to have more children in hopes of having a specific number of surviving children.  A theory holds the prediction that malaria will lead to a higher fertility rate and intensely high population growth in areas of a high risk for malaria.  This population growth may also lead to higher poverty rates in these regions.  With more cases of malaria to treat and more mouths to be fed, there will be a constant spending of money. 

High fertility may also lead to a phenomenon that economists call the “quantity – quality trade off”.  This phenomenon states that a high fertility rate will lead to poorer education for children because parents may choose to invest less in their daughters as they will spend much of their life in watching over children and doing domestic tasks as opposed to working in the labor force where they would earn money.

Worker productivity will also be in danger of slipping.  First, markets are not likely to expand into malarious regions of the world.  Second, workers in malarious regions would be unlikely to move to more productive regions and ultimately prohibit maximum productivity. 

Prevention of malaria has been a difficult task partly due to many of the countries lack of funds and the ever steady warm and tropical climate which provokes the development of the malaria parasite in mosquitoes.  Fortunately for us Americans, if we are aware of the problem, we can take the initiative to prevent among ourselves.  So, if you are planning a tropical getaway, it might just be worth a trip to Doc’s for some antibiotics so you are completely worry free on your vacation.            

Bibliography

Foster, S. and Phillips, M.  “Economics and its contribution to the fight against malaria.”  Annals of Medicine & Parisitology 92 (4) (1998): 503

Jury, M. R., and A D. Kanemba. "A Climate-Based Model for Malaria Prediction in Southeastern Africa." South African Journal of Science 103 (2007): 57-62.

Lopez, A D., and C D. Mathers. "Measuring the Global Burden of Disease and Epidemological Transitions." Annals of Medicine & Parisitology 100 (2006): 481-499.

Sachs, J., and Malaney, P. "The Economic and Social Burden of Malaria." Nature 415 (2002): 680-685.