MALARIA IN ETHIOPIA CASE STUDY

Case study of one cummunicable disease

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN CAUSES

• Malaria thrives in warm, humid climates and stagnat water

• Disease is endemic in the western lowlands where temperatures and humidity is high throughout the year

• Urbanisation, irrigation schemes and theh missue of malarial drugs have encouraged the spread of the disease

• Urbansiation - garbage dumps, discarded containers - breeding sites for Malaria

PREVALENCE, INCIDENCE AND PATTERNS OF DISEASE

• Malaria is endemic in 75% of Ethiopia’s land area - not evenly distributed within the country

• Kills around 70,000 people a year

• Transmission rates peak after the rainy season, between June and November

SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS

• Poor areas that have few barriers to mosquitoes are often hit the hardest

• Ethiopians suffer approx. 5 million episodes of malaria a year

• Has debiitating effects, causing absenteeism, slowing economic growth and reinforcing the cycle of poverty

• Malaria absorbs 40% of national health expenditure

DIRECT AND INDIRECT STATEGIES USED TO MITIGATE AGAINST THE DISEASE

• Since 2005 Ethiopia has benefitted from:

  • President’s Malaria Initative

  • Global Health Initiative

• Helped with malaria prevention and treatment throughout sub-Saharan Africa

• Success - death rates have halved between 2000-2010

• Indirect

  • Focus on mass publicity campaigns

  • Provides early diagnosis and treatment of malaria

• Success

  • Prevalence of disease fell from 4.6% in 2006 of the population to 0.8% in 2011

CHALLENGES OF ERADICATING MALARIA

• Funding

  • 24/41 high-burden countries rely on external funding for malaria programmes

• Drug resistance

  • ACTs have been integral to success of global malaria control, protecting their efficency for treatment of malaria

• Climate Change

  • Increase opportunity for malaria tranmission

  • In lower areas, higher temperatures will increase the growth cycle of the parasite, increasing transmission