How does Zimbabwe spend money to research a cure, to control, or prevent malaria?
Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in Africa and maybe even the world. A large portion of its money is put towards preventing and treating malaria. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has demanded that the government of Zimbabwe return $7.3 million to pay for the distribution of medicine that can cure malaria such as quinine. Last year the estimated amount of money spent on malaria was $1.5 billion (“Funding for Malaria Today”). Zimbabwe contributed to a large part of that. “Malaria is a disease of poverty and it causes more poverty,” says the World Health Organization (WHO).
GDP and Per Capita Income of Zimbabwe
The GDP (gross domestic product) of Zimbabwe is $2.342 billion and the per capita income is $200 ("Zimbabwe- Economy"). From 1990 to 2000, Zimbabwe’s GDP fell about 50% and caused the rates of malaria and AIDS to rise dramatically, although malaria currently kills more people than AIDS (Mattes). Because the GDP and per capita income is so low, Zimbabwe does not have enough money to buy bed nets and medicine for people with malaria. As I said before, malaria is a disease of poverty and causes more poverty (WHO).
How can Zimbabwe increase funds to research a better cure, to control, or to prevent malaria? What must the government do?
In order to raise enough money for malaria the government of Zimbabwe must partner with the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) and the Rollback Malaria organization (Endreszl). About 70% of all global funding for malaria comes from international donors (“Malaria in Zimbabwe”). If the government returns the $7.3 million as instructed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, then we can get the medicine we need. Maybe malaria can truly bite the dust!
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Statistical Data
It does not cost a lot of money to buy a bed net. In fact it only costs $5 to manufacture an insecticide treated net. It costs another $5 to send it to Zimbabwe (Blascke and Subramajan). Quinine is also important to the future of malaria. It can cost anywhere from $43 to $58 per bottle depending on the amount ("Quinine- Malaria Treatment"). Mosquito wands are another tool to the prevention of malaria. They cost $22 each (“The Executioner”). This money doesn’t add up to a lot but there are twelve million people living in Zimbabwe. Also this country has a lot of poverty. They cannot afford these things so we need to help!
How does the research on data affect the solution to malaria?
Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria (Blascke and Subramajan). More children die from malaria than any other disease in the world (Blascke and Subramajan). The data on the costs of the nets and medicine effect my solution, which is to start a malaria center here in the U.S. where people can donate money toward helping the poor people in Zimbabwe, because when you add it all up it will cost a lot of money to get everyone in Zimbabwe a bed net, medicine, and mosquito wand. However, this solution is better than spraying the air with mosquito repellant because then we will put harmful chemicals in the air. This solution will take time but I have confidence that it could work!
