{"id":11721,"date":"2012-06-21T23:37:21","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T21:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/africa-money-waking-up-to-the-maths-of-malaria\/"},"modified":"2012-06-21T23:37:21","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T21:37:21","slug":"africa-money-waking-up-to-the-maths-of-malaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/africa-money-waking-up-to-the-maths-of-malaria\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICA MONEY-Waking up to the maths of malaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Cropley<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, June 21<\/span> (Reuters) – To the minerals and
\nmobiles underpinning Africa’s pacy growth over the last decade,
\nyou may soon be able to add malaria – or at least its absence.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides the huge human cost imposed on the continent – 90
\npercent of the 655,000 deaths estimated worldwide in 2010 – the
\nmosquito-borne disease is an economic millstone, draining public
\nand private resources and hammering productivity.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a 2001 study co-authored by U.S. economist
\nJeffrey Sachs, the disease imposes an annual “growth penalty” of
\n1.3 percentage points on afflicted states, which includes most
\nof those south of the Sahara apart from South Africa.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest
\noil producer, malaria is responsible for up to 25 worker days
\nlost per person per year, or two a month, due to direct
\ninfection or the need to stay at home to nurse a sick family
\nmember, often for a week or more.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In Zambia, it is the leading cause of absenteeism,
\naccounting for more than twice as many days off as HIV\/AIDS, and
\ncan consume up to 40 percent of the public health budget in
\ncash-strapped frontline states.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It may not always be thus.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The number of malaria deaths has fallen dramatically in the
\nlast decade due to increased aid spending on basic items such as
\ninsecticide-treated bed nets and drugs, the World Health
\nOrganization (WHO) says.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

More excitingly, the holy grail of a vaccine against a
\nnotoriously adaptable parasite no longer appears unobtainable
\nafter an experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline was
\nshown last year to halve the risk of African children getting
\nthe disease.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Cropley 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}