ABSTRACT
A small but intensive study was carried out adopting a simple method which attempts to quantify the economic consequences Plasmodium falciparum malaria on education investment through school pupil absenteeism in a community in Solomon Islands. In a randomized sample of 4,920 cases of P. falciparum malaria in a community, 2,886 occurred in children of primary school age group of 7 to 13 years. On average a case gave rise to a mean school absenteeism of 5.3 days. In the final analysis a total of 11,028 pupil days schooling were lost due to the sampled cases of malaria caused by the species. This is equivalent to 55.14 school pupil years as a child is expected to attend school for 200 days in a year. A primary school teacher with an average annual salary of US$3,990.00 is expected to teach 6,500 school pupil days a year. When this is adopted as an economic indicator for investment in education the loss is calculated to be US$6,769.57 or equivalent to US$1.38 per case. When this is applied nationally, assuming that rates are similar for 79,203 cases of P. falciparum reported in 1990, the total consequence for investment in education is US$108,966.00, which is equivalent to 27.31 teachers being paid for not teaching, an unacceptable impact for a small nation like the Solomon Islands.
Subject(s)
Absenteeism , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Cost of Illness , Education/economics , Humans , Malaria, Falciparum/economics , MelanesiaABSTRACT
The effect of permethrin impregnated bednets was studied for the first time amongst a large community in North Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The community was divided into two; one covered 23 villages with 860 people who were given bednets impregnated at 0.5 g/m2, and the other 20 villages with 520 people was used as control. Parasitological data were collected by regular prevalence surveys and examination of records of malaria patients who have sought treatment in clinics. Entomological data by landing catches using human bait. The entomological results showed a 71% reduction of Anopheles farauti. Even though there was no significant reduction observed with An.punctulatus, as the density was already very low, the number biting indoor was much lower than those outdoor of houses with treated bednets. Parasitologically there was a steady decline in the incidence between surveys with Plasmodium falciparum in the under 10 years old. Even though there was no significant reduction in the other variables measured, there was a steady increase in the clearance rate between surveys which might also be due to easy accessibility to chemotherapy. The study showed the significant beneficial effect of permethrin impregnated bednets, which was found to be still effective up to twelve months, against stable P. falciparum malaria in children.