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Steve Knowles, AngloGold Ashanti’s Director for Malaria Control, even went so far to say that “there was no doubt that malaria was the biggest threat to us as a company.” In fact, “in 2005 the Obuasi Mine Hospital was seeing a staggering average of 6,800 malaria patients per month, of a workforce of 8,000.” This resulted in nearly “7,500 man shifts lost per month” and a cost to the company of “$55,500 per month” for malaria treatment medication. After the implementation of the company’s new preventative policy, which “consisted of killing the mosquitoes through indoor residual spraying, preventing the mosquitoes from biting with nets, screening and repellants, controlling breeding via environmental management and anti-malarial drugs…the average monthly cost of treatment has… declined from $55,000 to just over $6,000 and the lost man-days due to malaria has been reduced from almost 7,000 per month to just over 160.” This is not to mention the effects of the program in the larger community which has experienced “an average decline of over 5, 800 cases per month (75%)” as well as a 70 percent increase in school attendance and a reduction in malaria caused infant mortality rate to zero.
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Resource: Thom, Anso. “Ghana: Malaria Investment Pays Off.” Health-e News Service. AllAfrica.com, 5 May 2011. <http://allafrica.com/stories/201105091214.html>.
Additional Information
A report from Roll Back Malaria, “Business Investing in Malaria Control: Economic Returns and a Healthy Workforce for Africa”: http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/ProgressImpactSeries/report6.html
An article on the cost of malaria to Africa: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=584465
An article from ‘Modern Ghana’ on the economic benefits of malaria control: http://www.modernghana.com/news/327494/1/new-report-shows-that-private-sector-investment-in.html
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think realizing the economic benefits of malaria control will have a big influence on the eradication of the disease? Why or why not?
2. What types of communities will benefit from private industry sponsored malaria control efforts? Which will not?
3. Who should take primary responsibility for reducing the impact of malaria on Africa countries? Why?