Malaria obstructing economic growth in Africa - Expert

From Eunice Menka, GNA Special Correspondent, Mombasa

Mombasa, Kenya, April 25, GNA - There is strong evidence that malaria obstructs overall economic growth in Africa, a medical anthropologist said on Tuesday.

Professor Isaac Nyamongo of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, said, in 2000, it was estimated that economic development in Africa would have been 32 per cent higher had malaria been eliminated 35 years ago. "Malaria-free countries average three times higher gross domestic product (GDP) per person than countries with malaria," he said at a workshop on malaria for some 25 African journalists and scientists in Mombasa, Kenya. The Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA), an African-led institution overseeing vaccine trials in nine African countries, is organizing the workshop under the theme, "Moving the Malaria Agenda Forward."

MCTA is expecting a malaria vaccine for use in Africa by 2011 should clinical trials into the candidate vaccine prove successful in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and other African countries. Prof. Nyamongo, who was dilating on the economic and social cost of malaria, told participants that malaria attacks adversely affected educational attainment in Africa.

He said in Kenya, malaria was responsible for 50 per cent of all preventable school absenteeism. Prof. Nuamongo spoke on cerebral malaria, a severe form of malaria, which results in coma and deaths when not treated early at the health facility.

He said cerebral malaria affected the brain and could result in learning difficulties, especially in children even after they had recovered.

"In Kenya, school children hospitalized with cerebral malaria are 4.5 times more likely to have learning difficulties." He said cost of treatment resulted in loss of man hours and hindered productivity.