Health KQ2 Flashcards
Describe how the lack of education contributes to the spread of malaria.
A lack of knowledge about malaria and how it is transmitted can lead to increased incidences of malarial infection. Communities who have been educated about how malaria is transmitted are less likely to have the disease. These people would know how to use bed nets to protect themselves at night and also know the importance of getting rid of pools of standing water around their houses to limit the breeding of mosquitoes. They would also know where to receive treatment to prevent the parasite from being spread to other family members or the people around them. For example, pupils in Mali who were given malaria prevention education were more than 95% less likely to be infected with malaria.
Describe how limited provision of and access to health care contributes to the spread of malaria.
Shortage of doctors, lack of health services in rural areas and the cost of medicine can contribute to the spread of malaria. For example, in India, there are only 6 doctors per 10,000 people and only 4% of GDP is spent on providing health care, mainly in urban areas. This means that people in rural areas have to travel further to receive treatment even when medication is available. The treatment for malaria is expensive, and many people do not receive treatment at all. Additionally, the longer people are sick before being treated, the higher the chances of the malaria spreading to others.
Describe how overcrowded living conditions contributes to the spread of malaria.
In overcrowded living conditions, large numbers of people live in very close together in a small area. They interact with each other more often and closely, as a result diseases spread quickly and easily. These conditions are usually found in slums where population densities are high and there are poor living conditions. Refugees and migrants to cities often live in crowded, unhygienic dwellings that sometimes do not have proper doors or windows. For example, people living in slums in Mumbai often live in poorly built shelters of plywood, have 5 or more people in a room with no partitions. This will allow Anopheles mosquitoes, which are active at night, to enter the house easily and move from person to person.
Describe how the lack of sanitation contributes to the spread of malaria.
Due to lack of proper sanitation, stagnant pools of water may form. These pools of water provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes. When these are located close to settlements, it increases the risk of people being infected with malaria. For example, many slums are often built along canals in Manila, Philippines. The stagnant water in the canals provides a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Describe the affect of climate on the spread of malaria.
Areas with high temperatures, rainfall and humidity create suitable conditions and breeding grounds for mosquitoes to thrive. High temperatures of 27-30 C increase the life span and activities of mosquitoes, they also shorten the development time of the parasite in the mosquitoes. High rainfall can produce suitable breeding grounds for mosquitoes especially in areas of poor drainage where stagnant pools of water can form. High relative humidity of 50%-60% are needed for mosquitoes to survive, they also lead to mosquitoes having a longer life span and thus are able to infect more people. For example, countries, such as Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have the highest rates of infection are found in the tropics where temperatures, rainfall and relative humidity are very high.
Describe the impact of malaria on death rates.
The higher the incidence of malarial infection, the higher the death rates. Deaths from malaria have been falling globally, however the death rates vary from country to country. For example, in 2010, 2% of all deaths were caused by malaria, but most of these cases were from LDCs. Nigeria and the Democratic of Congo accounted for 40% of all malarial deaths.
Describe the impact of malaria on Infant Mortality Rates (IMR)
The higher the incidence of malarial infection, the higher the infant mortality rates. IMR vary from place to place and in some LDCs, like Nigeria, may be as high as 140 deaths/1000 live births. Women who have contracted malaria during pregnancy can infect the unborn child. Around 75,000 – 200,000 infants die each year within their first year due to low birth weight caused by malarial infection during pregnancy.
Describe the burden on households caused by malaria.
Malaria can cause lost workdays and income. Coupled with the high cost of treatment will increase the economic burden on individuals and households. For example, in Ghana, this can be as much as 34% of the household’s income.
Describe the impact of malaria on the cost of health care.
Countries affected by malaria would have to allocate financial resources to provide health care to those affected. This will mean fewer resources that can be used for development; building schools, infrastructure and economic development. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that providing health care can amount to 40% of public spending; building hospitals and clinics, buying medicine and insecticide-treated nets.
Describe the loss of productivity caused by malaria.
Due to poor health, people infected with malaria cannot work, leading to a decrease in productivity. Lower productivity means slower economic growth for the country. Areas affected by malaria have been shown to experience slowing down of economic growth by up to 1.3% per year.
How does the resistance to anti-malarial drugs contribute to the re-emergence of malaria?
This is due to rises in counterfeit or incomplete doses of anti-malarial drugs that do not totally kill off the malarial parasite. This allows surviving malarial parasites to build up a resistance to the drug. For example, Indian workers in Thailand acquired drug resistant parasites in their bodies. They brought the parasites home and infected others. Existing drugs in India were ineffective and its spread in India became more difficult to contain.
How does the rise in travel contribute to the re-emergence of malaria?
With increase in air travel, vectors/parasites can be transported into new areas. For example, an Anopheles mosquito infected by malaria in Asia bites a traveller and after leaving the plane in Europe, the traveller is bitten by another Anopheles mosquito. This mosquito acquires the malaria parasite and spreads the disease when it takes blood from another person. Malaria was reported in Southern France in non-endemic areas and among people who had not travelled or received blood transfusions. Hence the disease had to be brought into the area.
How does climate change contribute to the re-emergence of malaria?
When the climate gets warmer, temperatures at higher altitudes/latitudes increase, These places become favourable breeding sites for mosquitoes due to the increased temperatures. This increases the areas that infections can occur and increases the number of people that can be infected. For example, in the Central Highlands in Kenya, climate change has raised the average temperatures allowing mosquitos to live and breed at higher elevations, increasing the risk of infection to the 4 million people living there and would increase the spread of the disease.
How does the resistance to insecticides contribute to the re-emergence to malaria?
Insecticide resistance refers to changes in an insect that increase its ability to withstand or overcome the effects of one or more insecticides. This happens when the frequency of resistant insects in a population increases (e.g. through resistance traits being passed on from one generation to another). Commonly used insecticides become ineffective and more mosquitoes survive to spread the disease. For example, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), since 2010, a total of 60 countries have reported resistance to at least one class of insecticide, with a total of 49 of those countries reporting resistance to two or more classes.
How does limitations in health care affect the difficulty of managing malaria?
The malaria parasite has the ability to develop resistance caused by incompletely treating an infected person. This can occur when people cannot afford the complete dosage, are treated with counterfeit drugs which do not have the required potency or unknowingly stopping the treatment because they feel better. For example. in 2009, resistance to anti-malarial drugs was observed along the Thai- Cambodian border
